Transformation
by ThanosofTitan
Summary: Konoka practices a new type of magic, which leads to unexpected consequences for Chachamaru. Chachamaru/OC, rated T for swearing and some scenes in later chapters.
1. Chapter 1

"Okay, Konoka-san, try again," Negi said, encouraging his student in the exercise she was attempting.

"Okay, um, Practe Bigi Nar", she said, as the practice wand she was holding started to glow. "Inficio Vita!"

A glowing orange bolt shot out, striking the door in front of her, but nothing happened.

"Sensei, is this really necessary?" Asked Setsuna, who was observing from the back of the room. "Ojousama is already proficient in healing magic."

"Yes, but she can do so much more. According to the headmaster, her magic potential is greater than even my father's."

"I'm sorry, Negi-sensei, I'm just no good at this," Konoka said, as her face fell and she looked at the floor somberly.

"That's not true, Konoka-san! I know you can do it, just give it one more try."

"Well, okay, Negi-sensei, if you really think I can." She brightened up and, with renewed vigor, started concentrating as hard as she could.

"Pract Bigi Nar!" She announced assertively, aiming her wand once again at the door. However, just at that moment it opened, as a green-haired girl with unusual ears entered the room.

"Excuse me, Ne-" the newcome began, but was cut off.

"Inficio Vita!" Konoka yelled the encantation before she had time to realize what was happening. An incredibly bright, glowing bolt of energy struck Chachamaru Karakuri straight in the chest. Her eyes grew wide, and a second or two later, she collapsed on the floor.

The next thing she was aware of was Konoka's voice. "I'm sorry, Chachamaru-san! I didn't mean to!"

She slowly opened her eyes. She was lying on a table in the familiar Mahora Robotics Department laboratory. Surrounding her were the familiar faces of Negi, Konoka, Setsuna, her master Evangeline, and her creator Satomi Hakase.

"Oh, you're awake, thank goodness!" Negi said, sighing in relief. Chachamaru was still confused. The last thing she remembered was master asking her to go tell Negi that she would be skipping class tomorrow, but when she walked in she was immediately hit by a strange spell from Konoka, then she blacked out. Wondering how much time had passed since then, Chachamaru tried to access her internal clock, but found herself unable to. That wasn't the only thing that was wrong - she couldn't access any of her programs at all! She then noticed an odd thumping sound coming from her chest that had never been there before. She realized she was inhaling and exhaling air - breathing? She reached her hands up to her ears, but instead of feeling the familiar robotic devices, her fingers discovered normal human ears.

"What - what happened?" She asked, sitting up slowly.

"I'm sorry, Chachamaru-san!" Konoka yelled again.

"I don't know how," Negi began, "but somehow Konoka-san's spell altered your body. As far as we can tell, you've become - human."


	2. Chapter 2

"Human... I'm - human?" She asked, still not quite believing it.

"The spell Konoka-san was experimenting with was not well - documented, she found it in an old book on Library Island," Negi said. "No one predicted it could do this."

"This is amazing!" Hakase was barely able to contain her excitement. "I had no idea that something like this was even possible!"

"How do you feel, Chachamaru?" Setsuna asked. The newly-human girl stood up and got her bearings.

"Kind of weird," she replied. "This will take some getting used to."

"I would like to request everyone else to leave, I need to keep her here in order to study this unprecedented phenomenon," Hakase said, already furiously scribbling notes on a clipboard.

"Oh no you don't," Evangeline finally spoke up. "Human or not, she'll still my servant, and she's coming with me." Hakase sighed in resignation, knowing it was futile to argue with the vampire.

"A medical examination would still be prudent," she said.

"Fine. Just make sure it doesn't take longer than an hour. I'll be back." Eva walked out the door, seemingly disinterested. Hakase took Chachamaru to the biology lab next door, performing several tests such as taking a blood sample, X-rays, etc. They were soon done.

"Well Chachamaru, I'm glad to say that I can officially issue you a clean bill of health," the young scientist smiled.

"Thank you, Hakase-san," said Chachamaru, bowing politely.

"Let's go already, we've wasted enough time today," Eva's voice rang out from the back of the room.

"Yes, master." Chachamaru obediently complied, following the vampire.

"Don't worry, Negi-sensei and I will research this, I'm sure we'll find a way to reverse it soon," Hakase reassured her, waving goodbye.

* * *

As Chachamaru left the lab, she sank deep into thought, ruminating on Hakase's words. Reverse it... but did she really want it reversed? This might be a good thing. She had always felt apart from humanity despite really liking most humans she knew. Negi-sensei accepted her for who she was, but maybe other people would accept her more too. She especially thought of Chisame-san, since the glasses - wearing classmate often seemed uncomfortable with Chachamaru's nature. Then again, there were things to be said for being a robot too. She kept intinctively trying to access her various programs, only to be continually reminded that they weren't there. She found herself wondering how humans could deal with such a limited experience, only being able to see in such a narrow spectrum, unable to track heat or magnetic fields, and unable to hear with the detail and clarity she was used to. She was interrupted from her reverie by the cry of a young boy on the path next to her. She bent down and addressed the weeping child, who she recognized since he often played in this area.

"What's wrong, Takahiro?" She asked, concerned.

"M-M-Marbles climbed up a tree, and, I can't get him down!" The boy cried, pointing to a nearby tree branch, upon which sat a confused and frightened - looking kitten.

"Don't worry, I'll get him down for you," she said, patting the boy's head gently. She turned around and tried to activate her rockets, but immediately realized that wouldn't work. Instead she tried to climb the tree trunk, but slid back down after only getting a few feet up.

"Wh-why don't you fly, Chachamaru-san?" Asked the boy, still crying.

"I - um, well, I had an accident..." she said, embarrassed that she wasn't able to help.

"Oh, this is pathetic!" A sharp voice announced. Evangeline flew up into the air, grabbed the cat by the scruff of its neck, and unceremoniously lowered it to the ground. It was a bit shaken, but no worse for wear.

"Marbles!" Takahiro cried in joy, as the cat jumped into his arms. "Thanks lady!"

Eva ignored him and continued on the path home. "Come on, Chachamaru, and stop wasting time."

"Yes, master," she said, as she started following again. After a few more minutes, however, she became conscious of the fact that something was wrong. Pain was accumulating in her leg joints, and she was short of breath. She stopped, leaning on a nearby building.

"What's the matter now?" Eva asked, clearly annoyed.

"I think I'm tired, master. May I rest for a bit?"

It was a rather long walk, Eva thought. "Fine, but don't take too long. I'll go on ahead and wait for you."

"Thank you, master", Chachamaru said, as she continued to lean against the wall.

After recuperating and arriving at Evangeline's cottage, she found her master sitting idly on the couch.

"Chachamaru, make me some tea," she commanded.

"Yes master," the green-haired girl replied. Eva sighed and went upstairs to her room. As far as she was concerned, this incident was nothing more than a nuisance, although she privately admitted that she was impressed at the work of the Konoe girl. Even with her centuries of magical knowledge and experience she had no idea how to undo such a spell. Her thoughts were interrupted by a sharp cry coming from downstairs. Eva immediately got off her bed and ran down to the kitchen.

There she found Chachamaru running her left hand under cold water from the sink, a shattered teacup and its contents spilled on the floor below her.

"What happened?" Eva asked, in an impatient tone.

"Master, I'm sorry, I was pouring your tea, and I burned myself," she said, still wincing from the pain.

"What, did Konoka's spell also turn you into a klutz?" Eva asked, now very annoyed.

"No, this has happened before - this is just the first time that it... hurt," Chachamaru said, still rinsing her burn wound.

Eva sighed. "You're completely worthless like this, you know? Get out of here and don't come back until you're fixed!"

Chachamaru's eyes widened in shock and sadness. "Master, please-" She was interrupted, however, as Evangeline's face suddenly lit up with a devious smile.

"Wait, scratch that," she began. "There's still one way you can be of use to me."

"What - what is that, master?" Chachamaru inquired nervously, having a feeling she was not going to like the answer.

A nefarious grin spread over Eva's face, as she licked her lips and bared her fangs.

"You have blood now."


	3. Chapter 3

"M-Master... you wouldn't..." Chachamaru was visibly cringing in fear of the small vampire as she advanced menacingly.

"Relax, I'm not going to take enough to kill you, you'll just be unconscious for about a month, hopefully Hakase and the others will have figured out a way to turn you back to normal by then," she said, as she opened her mouth wide and prepared to take a bite.

"NO!" Chachamaru screamed, as she suddenly rushed past Eva, pushing her to the side and running out the front door of the cottage.

"Huh, she actually had the nerve to disobey me?" Eva thought to herself, walking towards the nearby window just in time to see her former servant disappear behind a grove of trees as she ran off. She could have pursued and easily caught her, but she didn't feel like it. Eventually Chachamaru would have to come back, either as a human, in which case she could drink her blood, or as a robot, in which case she could resume her normal duties. The Dark Evangel grinned as she retired back to her room upstairs.

After blindly running for several minutes, Chachamaru slowed down, and noticed that her master did not seem to be chasing her. She was experiencing that peculiar human feeling of fatigue again, and sat down on a nearby bench overlooking the river to rest. Reflecting on the thoughts she had had earlier, she came to the conclusion that she had been dead wrong. Becoming human had caused her nothing but trouble - it was definitely not a good thing. She had nowhere to go now. Normally if master got angry with her and kicked her out of the house, she would just live in the robotics lab for a while, but she was human now and would need an actual bed to sleep in instead of a cold, hard, metallic table. She slumped down, her face resting in her hands, and began crying. She was soon interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.

"Are you okay? What's wrong?" She looked up, and saw a teenage boy standing in front of her, looking very concerned. He had spiky black hair and was wearing casual clothes. Chachamaru didn't recognize him - she missed the time when she could have just accessed the Mahora student database in her mind and identified him immediately.

"It's nothing," she said, wiping her eyes as she slowly stood up. "Do I know you?"

"Oh, I'm sorry," he said, clearly a bit embarrassed. "My name is Ryo Tezuka, I'm a student at the Mahora Boys' Middle School. I was just on my way to the library to return this." He held up a book, some fantasy title by an author she had never heard of.

"My name is Chachamaru Karakuri," she said, shaking the boy's hand.

"That's an interesting name," he replied, smiling slightly. "Listen, I'm really sorry if I'm intruding, but it looks like you were really upset about something."

"Well, I sort of just lost my job, and my only place to stay," she revealed.

"I'm afraid I can't help you with your job," Ryo began, "but there's a spare room in my dorm, you can come live there if you want."

Chachamaru was a bit surprised by this offer. "But isn't that a boy's dorm?" She asked.

"You'll have the entire room to yourself so I don't see the problem," he replied. "The teacher who manages it is very lenient, I'm sure she won't object. You are a Mahora student, right?"

"Yes, I'm a student in Class 3-A in the Mahora Girls' Middle School," she replied, smiling too now. "Thank you for this."

Ryo blushed a little. "It's no problem, I'm glad to help. If you're not busy, I'll show you the room now." They both left the bench, walking in the opposite direction from the river, and down a few alleyways until they arrived in front of a large, 3 - story building. Entering the front door, they were confronted by a slightly rotund but kind - looking woman.

"Kishida-sensei, perfect timing," said Ryo. "This is Chachamaru Karakuri, she's a student at the girls' middle school but has no place to stay, we were wondering if she could use the empty dorm room on the third floor?"

The woman smiled. "I don't see the harm in it. Sure, Chachamaru-chan, you can stay here, I'll go get the room key." She walked off down a hallway to the left.

"See, I told you it would be no problem," Ryo said.

"Thank you, Ryo-san," Chachamaru said, bowing politely. Ryo blushed a little again.

"There's no need to be so formal," he said.

Just then, Kishida-sensei returned with the room key. They took the elevator up to the third floor and stopped in front of the door labeled Room 318. Ryo opened the lock. The room was spartanly furnished, with a single bed, a table and a few chairs, as well as a door leading to a bathroom in the back.

"I'll just leave you to unpack then," Ryo said, preparing to exit.

"Wait, Ryo-san," Chachamaru began.

"Hmm?" He stopped and turned around.

"Could you help me unpack?" Since she had only recently become human, she wasn't exactly sure of everything she would need.

"Well okay, but first you're going to need to go get the rest of your belongings," he said.

"This is all I have," she said, holding up the small bag she was carrying.

"Wow, really? What's in there?" Ryo inquired, both curious and slightly confused.

Chachamaru suddenly realized that the only things in her bag were her maid outfit and various tools and devices she used for basic maintenance on her body. Obviously she didn't want Ryo to see any of this.

"Um, nothing. You know what, I changed my mind, I think I can unpack by myself," she said. If Ryo picked up on the nervousness in her voice, he didn't say anything about it, as he just told her goodbye and left to go return his book.

She entered her new room, the recent conversation making her aware of another concern. Human hygiene was very complex, and she really didn't have the slightest clue about it. She decided to rest a while and then go see if Hakase would help her.


	4. Chapter 4

Ryo Tezuka headed back towards the dorm after returning his book to the library. As he approached the building, he noticed a few of his classmates standing near the front entrance, talking about something. He couldn't quite make out what they were saying, but then one of them spotted him and waved him over.

"Hey Ryo, did you hear the news?" The boy asked.

"What news?" He responded.

"Kishida-sensei said a student from another school is moving into our dorm," another boy replied.

"Yeah, I know, I was just helping her settle in," Ryo replied nonchalanty.

"Her? So it's a girl?" The entire group's interest seemed to be piqued by this revelation.

"Hey, is she cute?" One of them asked.

"Um," Ryo stammered - he certainly could not deny that she was cute, in fact, merely calling her "cute" would be doing her a disservice in his opinion.

"Listen you guys, leave her alone, okay? She's going through a rough time, and the last thing she needs is a bunch of perverted guys hitting on her."

"Who are you calling perverted?" The first boy replied, irate. "You probably just want her all for yourself!"

"I do not!" Ryo yelled. "Besides, don't you already have a girlfriend, Noboru?"

He scoffed. "The bitch hasn't returned my calls in weeks, I'd break up with her if I could just get a hold of her."

Ryo sighed. He knew his friends weren't really bad people, but Chachamaru was from an all-girls school, and definitely wouldn't be used to them and their escapades. He walked past them and entered the dorm, going back up to his room.

* * *

After she finished unpacking, Chachamaru laid down on the bed and relaxed. It felt so comfortable on her body, and she supposed that this sensation was at least one good thing about being human. She stayed in bed for almost 15 minutes, feeling so relaxed that she almost forgot what she was planning to do next. Luckily, she remembered just as she was about to fall asleep and pulled herself up, heading towards Hakase's lab.

As she arrived, Hakase was engrossed in reading something on a computer terminal. She didn't even notice Chachamaru until she announced herself.

"Back so soon? Did Eva-san go to bed early?" The young scientist inquired.

"Um, yes. That is what happened," Chachamaru replied. Despite the image Hakase tried to cultivate of being a dispassionate scientist, Chachamaru knew that Hakase loved her like a daughter and if she found out what Eva had done, she would be upset. Perhaps even upset enough to confront the vampire about it, which could not end well.

"Well if you're hoping for a cure already, you're out of luck," Hakase replied. "Negi-sensei had to leave a little while ago, but I'm still working on it. Our research indicates that inorganic - to - organic transmutation is quite common in the history of magic, take for example shikigami, but all recorded incidents are of an inanimate object being endowed with temporary life; there is absolutely no precedent for an intelligent being with its own will being altered in this way and retaining that intelligence and personality, however there is a medieval alchemical process developed in Germany known as "soul grafting" which seems like it might yield promising results..." Hakase continued to ramble on, clearly excited by the challenge of the work she was attempting.

"Thank you for the effort, but if I may interrupt, Hakase-san..." The pigtailed girl finally stopped talking. "I did not expect you to solve the problem so quickly, I just came here because I was wondering if you could help me deal with the consequences of being human. I understand there are several things I will need, such as clothes and hygiene products."

Hakase seemed surprised at this, but then a warm smile spread across her face. "Are you suggesting a... mother-daughter shopping trip?" She asked

"I suppose you could call it that," Chachamaru replied, a bit confused by Hakase's excitement. The girl ran across the room and hugged her "daughter".

"I'd love to! I've always wanted to do something like this! Let's go, my research can wait." She grabbed Chachamaru's hand and led her out the door. She followed, bemused - she had never seen this side of Hakase before.

After visiting several shops, Hakase had bought Chachamaru several changes of clothes, a toothbrush, and many other items. "Thank you, I'll do my best to pay you back later," Chachamaru said politely, bowing to Hakase. Hakase smiled.

"Don't worry about that, it's a mother's job to buy things for her daughter, isn't it?"

"I - I suppose," Chachamaru replied, still a bit unnerved by Hakase's sudden change in attitude. "I'll see you tomorrow, Hakase-san." As she walked off in the direction of the boys' dorm, she was stopped by Hakase's voice again.

"Wait Chachamaru, Evangeline - san's house is that way," she said, pointing.

"Oh, yes, of course," the green - haired student replied, changing directions. Once she was sure Hakase had left, she doubled back. Hopefully she wasn't suspicious and chalked it up to disorientation caused by her transformation.

As Chachamaru approached her new room, she saw a note taped to the door. It read:

CHACHAMARU-SAN

IF ANY OF THE GUYS BOTHER YOU, JUST TELL ME, I'LL SET THEM STRAIGHT. THEY REALLY DON'T MEAN ANY HARM, BUT THEY CAN BE ANNOYING SOMETIMES.

- RYO

"I appreciate the concern, but I can handle myself," she thought, as she took the note and went inside. After brushing her teeth and performing several of the other human rituals Hakase had taught her, she changed into her new pajamas (she had picked a pair with pictures of kittens on them), and went to bed.

This lead into another new experience - her first dream.


	5. Chapter 5

She ran down the familiar alleys and lanes of Mahora, but they were dark and twisted somehow, buildings jutting out at odd angles and shadows shifting menacingly across her path. She knew something was following her, but she was too terrified to look back and see what it was. No matter how fast she ran, she couldn't get away, as she felt the evil presence drawing nearer and nearer. Just then, a shadow larger than all of the others and darker than the night swooped over her, like a giant bat. Looking at it in the air, it had glowing red eyes and gleaming, razor - sharp fangs. Familiar words rang out:

"You have blood now!" The monster swept down towards her, emitting a bone - chilling laugh. "I'll suck you dry!" Chachamaru cowered and hid her face with her hands, awaiting the inevitable end, but just as the massive vampire bat was about to strike, something streaked past it at an incredible speed, carrying Chachamaru off to safety. Looking up, she saw that she was flying over the terrain of Mahora Academy, now in bright daylight. All of the terror and darkness was gone. She was being carried in the arms of a mysterious person, whose face she couldn't quite make out. Suddenly, her savior's features clarified, showing it to be - Hakase-san!

The young scientist smiled at her daughter as they continued to glide gently through the air. Just as Chachamaru was about to speak, Hakase's face became a blur again, and then resolved into - Negi-sensei. He smiled down at her, and she was conscious of blushing a bit. "N-Negi-sensei, what-" she began, but then his face changed yet another time, this time turning into Ryo-san, but with the same kind expression on his face that the others had had. Chachamaru was still blushing, rather confused by these events. As she prepared to question her rescuer again, his face blurred one more time, and before it could change again, she woke up.

She sat up in her bed, looking around at the room, confused for a few seconds as to what had happened. "Oh, that must have been a dream," she realized. She remembered hearing that to humans, dreams often had deeper meanings. She wondered what her dream had meant.

This line of thought was immediately banished from her mind, however, as she noted the clock on the bedside table. 9:03 AM? She had overslept, and she had school today! She immediately jumped out of bed, rushing to prepare herself as fast as she could. When she was finally ready, she stepped out into the hallway. It was empty and silent - the boys must have left for school already. She took the stairs to the ground floor and began running towards the girl's middle school.

As she arrived at the door to room 3-A, she looked in and saw that the class appeared to be in the middle of a lesson. She didn't want to disturb her classmates, but Negi-sensei noticed her and let her in.

"I'm sorry, Negi-sensei, I was having some trouble and-" She began, but he cut her off. "It's no problem, Chachamaru-san, considering your, um, condition. I understand, so I'll let it go this time. Please proceed to your seat."

"Thank you, Negi-sensei," she said, smiling and bowing politely. The rest of the class began murmuring, and she overheard a bit of it.

"This is the first time I've ever seen Chachamaru show up late for class!" Whispered Kazumi. "Has anyone else seen it happen?"

"No," "Never," replied Fuuka and Fumika, looking puzzled. As Chachamaru approached her seat, she suddenly froze as she noticed the occupant of the seat behind hers. Eva was glaring at her with what appeared to be a mix of apathy and annoyance. She was very nervous as she took her seat in front of the vampire, due to the events of the previous day and the ominous dream she had just experienced. Just then, her former master whispered to her:

"There's no need to be so paranoid, it's not like I'm going to attack you during class." Chachamaru looked back at her. She was still scared, but decided to take her word for it - Eva-san was not in the habit of lying to her.

"I know I'm officially your English teacher, but today I've been asked to proctor a math test," Negi began, handing papers back to the class. The students let out a collective groan. Chachamaru didn't share their dismay, however. Math was her best subject. As she took her test paper, she examined the first question, expecting to be able to instantly compute the answer like she usually could. A moment of panic set in when she realized that the answer wasn't just coming to her. Another disadvantage of being human, she realized.

"It's okay, I can do this, I know I can," she thought to herself, concentrating on the problem. There were 3 variables, so if she moved them all to one side of the equation - no, that wasn't right. What she had to do was to keep only one variable on one side of the equation, then simplify, but the other two didn't seem to be - oh, she remembered now, cross - multiplication... After what seemed like an eternity, she finally solved the problem and triumphantly wrote down the answer. Just as she was about to move on to the next problem, she heard Negi-sensei speak.

"Okay, time's up, please pass your papers forward." Chachamaru's head fell into her hands in despair.

* * *

When class was over, she was intercepted in the hallway by Chisame.

"Okay, what's wrong?" The glasses-wearing student asked.

"Why do you think something is wrong, Chisame-san?" Chachamaru asked. Chisame rolled her eyes.

"Come on, do you think I'm blind or something? For one thing, you've never been late to class before. Second of all, you don't have those robot ears anymore. And finally, I could tell you were struggling with that math test, which should have been a cinch for you."

Chachamaru couldn't help but be impressed at Chisame's observational skills. "I guess I can't hide anything from you," she said, as she explained the situation.

Chisame seemed shocked by this. "That's incredible," she said. "So you're really human now? Kind of ironic."

"How so?" The green - haired student inquired.

"Well, the way I see it, magic is something that shouldn't belong in this world, but now it's responsible for making you normal. Kind of funny, don't you think?"

"I... guess so," said Chachamaru, not quite following Chisame's line of reasoning. Just then, she felt a sudden wave of fatigue overcome her. She almost collapsed right there in the hallway, barely catching herself before she reached the floor.

"Chachamaru-san!" Chisame shouted, running over to help her up. "What happened?"

"I - I don't know, I just suddenly felt tired and collapsed..." she replied. An idea then occurred to Chisame.

"Chachamaru, when exactly did this transformation take place?"

"Yesterday, 7:01 AM," she replied.

"And have you eaten anything since then?"

A look of understanding crossed Chachamaru's face.

"Oh, that's right - humans need to do that, don't they?"

Chisame laughed. "Just get yourself something soon and you'll be fine," she said, as the two parted ways.

Making sure not to overexert herself, Chachamaru walked slowly up to Chao Bao Zi, the food cart business started by Chao Lingshen before she had left. It was currently being run by Satsuki. As she approached the cart, Satsuki seemed happy to see her.

"Hi Chachamaru-san! Hakase-san told me what happened to you, so you don't need to worry about explaining. Are you here to try some of my food?"

"Yes, but I have never eaten before, so I'm not really sure what I should order," Chachamaru replied, peering at the menu on the wall.

"Maybe start off with a meat bun and a soda, that's what I would have," said Satsuki.

"Okay." Chachamaru decided to order 2 meat buns, due to the way her hunger had affected her before. Walking over to a nearby table, she set down the drink and picked up one of the buns. She looked at it carefully, before finally deciding to take a bite.

The taste was one of the most wonderful things she had experienced in her life. The soft, dry tang of the bread combined with the juicy texture of the meat was like a symphony on her taste buds. She quickly took another bite, and another. Did humans really experience something so amazing every day? Taking a sip of her soda, she found that to be just as good, the way the bubbles teased her tongue and the sweet flavor filled her mouth. Before she knew it, she had finished it all, and immediately went back to the cart to order more. This time she picked multiple drinks and many different types of food, tasting and savoring them all. She was so enthralled by the experience that she didn't notice Satsuki standing over her.

"Um, Chachamaru-san?" The aspiring chef inquired.

"Yes?" She replied, wiping a bit of food off of her mouth.

"That will be 5000 yen."

Chachamaru gasped as she realized her mistake. She had been so distracted by the incredible food that she had completely forgotten about the cost. She felt around in her pockets, only finding a few coins that didn't amount to any more than a few hundred yen.

"I'm sorry, Satsuki-san, it seems I-" She was interrupted by a familiar voice, as she looked at the boy approaching her table.

"Hey Chachamaru-san! How's it going?" Ryo asked.

"Oh, hello Ryo-san," Satsuki said, smiling.

"You know each other?" Chachamaru asked.

"Yeah, I come here all the time, best food in Mahora if you ask me," Ryo replied. Satsuki turned back to Chachamaru.

"If you can't pay, then I suppose you could work here for the next week and we could call it even," she said.

"Wait, what?" Ryo asked. "How much does she owe you?"

"5000 yen," Chachamaru answered, hanging her head in shame. Ryo noticed the huge pile of empty drinks and discarded wrappers and napkins on the table.

"Wow, I see, you must have been hungry. But it isn't necessary for you to work it off, here," he reached into his pocket and pulled out a few bills, handing the to Satsuki. "This should cover it."

"Ryo-san, you don't need to-" Chachamaru began.

"It's okay, I don't mind," he said, smiling. "Besides, I have a decent job at a gift shop a little ways from here, it's really no trouble."

Chachamaru stood up and bowed. "Thank you, Ryo-san." She reflected on how this was the second time in as many days that someone had offered to pay for her.

"I'm heading back to the dorm right now, want to walk with me?" He asked, blushing almost imperceptively.

"Sure," she smiled, and they left together. "Hmm, I wonder..." Satsuki thought as she watched them leave.

* * *

As they were about to make the turn into the parking lot of the boys' dorm, someone noticed and yelled across the street to them.

"Hey Ryo, who's the babe? Is she your girlfriend?"

"What? No, Ryo-san and I are just-" Chachamaru was clearly flustered by this accusation.

"Just friends," Ryo finished. "She's the one who's living in our dorm, her name is Chachamaru Karakuri."

The boy walked up and extended his hand. "Noboru Matsumoto, at your service." She shook his hand. "If you're not Ryo's girlfriend, are you seeing anyone? Because I'm available!"

Chachamaru blushed bright red. "Um, I..."

"Cut it out, Noboru," Ryo admonished. "Just ignore him, he's always like that."

"Hey, don't tell her to ignore me!" Noboru yelled, now standing several meters behind the two as they had continued towards the dorm building. Apparently he had something else to do, as he turned the opposite direction and walked away.

"Don't let the guys get to you, they're really harmless," Ryo said, as they entered the building.

"I'll try to keep that in mind," Chachamaru replied, as they parted ways, Ryo heading for his 1st - floor room and Chachamaru taking the elevator to the third floor. As she entered her room, she made sure to set the alarm clock Hakase-san had bought her yesterday so she didn't make the same mistake again. As she sat down on her bed and rested, she mentally reviewed today's events.

Aside from a few problems, her first full day as a human had been pretty good.


	6. Chapter 6

Chachamaru reached over and hit the snooze button on her alarm clock. As she slowly pulled herself out of bed, she reflected on how the noise was rather jarring. She supposed she would have to get used to it. She quickly got dressed and ready to go to school. As she opened her door, she found the hallway was crowded with students on their way to class, but she didn't see Ryo or Noboru.

None of the boys approached her directly, but some of them smiled kindly towards her. Others shied away, and a few seemed to be ogling her, but as soon as the made eye contact with them they quickly turned away out of embarrassment.

Almost as soon as she entered the door of the Mahora girls' middle school, she was confronted by Kazumi Asakura, who snapped a photo, causing Chachamaru to cover her eyes due to the sudden flash of light.

"Do you have time for an interview?" Before she could answer, Kazumi continued, "So how do you like being human?"

"Asakura-san, how did you-" Chachamaru began, but the reporter interrupted her.

"Saw you and Chisame talking, figured something was up, then I kept needling her until she told me," she replied, seemingly proud of herself. "This is the next big scoop! When I release this story-"

"Asakura-san, the fact that I was a robot in the first place was supposed to be a secret!" Chachamaru cut in, clearly distressed. Kazumi scoffed.

"Not a very well-kept one. Like there's anyone in the class who didn't know," she said flippantly.

"Not everyone is in our class!" Chachamaru objected. She thought of Ryo - what would his reaction be if he found out? She was afraid to think about it.

Kazumi looked at her classmate's face, a sincere expression of pleading and sadness crossing it. She sighed.

"Okay, fine, I won't spread it around to anyone outside of the class." Chachamaru looked slightly more relieved.

"Thank you, Asakura-san, I suppose that's the best I could hope for."

"So how DO you like being human?" Kazumi started again. Chachamaru sighed and decided to go along with the interview.

* * *

After school had ended, she was conscious of the fact that she was hungry again. She visited Chao Bao Zi, but only had enough pocket change to buy a single meat bun. It was good, but it still left her stomach feeling empty. She sat down at one of the tables and reflected on her predicament. When she was a robot, all she needed was magic to power her, which was provided by her master (and sometimes Negi-sensei), and maintenance on her body, which was provided by Hakase. But now as a human, she needed to eat, drink, take care of her personal hygiene - the items Hakase had bought her were a good start, but they wouldn't last forever. She realized that she needed money, and to get money, she needed a job.

She recalled Ryo saying that he had a job at a gift shop near here. He seemed to make a decent amount too, having no real problem sparing 5000 yen. Maybe she could get a job there too, or at least Ryo might know where she could find employment. The only problem was that Ryo had never said exactly where he worked. She was aware that, in addition to being a school, Mahora was a historical site and a major tourist attraction, but she didn't know how many gift shops there were, or where to find them. She looked up at Satsuki, serving another customer in her cart. She figured asking her would be as good a place to start as any.

"Enjoy your meal!" Satsuki said happily, as the boy she had just served walked off to eat his food.

"Excuse me, Satsuki-san?" Chachamaru asked.

"Yes, how can I help you Chachamaru-san?"

"I was just wondering, do you know where I can find a gift shop around here?"

Satsuki seemed a bit confused by this request, but shrugged it off and answered.

"I think there's one on Library Island, but that's kind of far away. The closest one is probably next to the World Tree." She pointed in the general direction.

"Thank you, Satsuki-san," Chachamaru bowed politely and headed towards the indicated area.

It didn't take her long to find the shop, as it was clearly labeled. Walking in, she was confronted by a large, noisy crowd, all trying to bring their purchases to the counter.

* * *

"Man, what a busy day," Ryo thought, as he scanned the price of yet another in an endless line of novelty items and gave a receipt to a customer.

"Excuse me-" A voice began

"Please be patient, I'll get to you all in time, just-" He stopped as he looked up and realized who the voice belonged to.

"Chachamaru-san? I didn't expect to see you here."

"You look busy, do you need help?" She asked.

"Well..." Ryo looked at the massive lines of customers. There was apparently some huge tourist group visiting today, bringing business to an unusually high level. It would take forever to help them all at this rate. His boss probably wouldn't mind if he had some extra help.

"Sure, do you know how to-"

"I've got it," Chachamaru said, walking behind the counter and opening a second line. Ryo was impressed at the way she quickly and efficiently assisted the customers. With the two of them working in tandem, they were done in only 30 minutes or so. There were only one or two customers left in the store, and they seemed to be taking their time browsing.

"Ryo-san, the reason I came here was to look for a job," she said.

"Sorry, I'm afraid there are currently no openings here," he said. Her face fell. "I'll gladly split today's salary with you though, you were a big help." This cheered her up a little. "I also know of a few other places that might be hiring, with your skills I'm sure you'd have no trouble getting in."

"I appreciate that, Ryo-san," she said.

"I've still got to work here for another hour or so, so you can come back later if you want."

"Would it be okay if I stayed and helped you?" She asked.

"If that's what you really want to do," he replied. She smiled and nodded.

* * *

After his shift finally ended, Ryo and Chachamaru walked back to the dorm.

"So, like I was saying, there's a sports equipment store a few blocks from here that's hiring, or at least they were hiring when I walked past the storefront the day before yesterday, maybe you-"

He was interrupted by a noise like nothing he had ever heard before - an almost unearthly growl. There, standing not 10 meters from the two, was a vicious - looking creature, somewhat resembling a cross between a wolf and a hyena, with a dirty, mangy - looking pelt and rows of razor - sharp teeth.

"What the hell is that!" Ryo exclaimed in surprise and terror. Just then, the creature charged at him, knife - like claws hurtling through the air as it pounced. Chachamaru reacted without thinking, pushing Ryo out of the way as the beast tackled her, gouging three sharp slashes in her right arm with its claws. As it realized it has missed its intended target, it turned around, growling menacingly as it prepared for another strike. Chachamaru tried her best to ignore the pain in her arm and took up a fighting stance, but she realized that in her current condition she had little chance.

Just then, a loud shot rang out, and the beast was struck by a seemingly invisible force, falling down to the ground dead. Mana Tatsumiya walked over, the rifle she was holding still smoking.

"How negligent of me to let a low - level _youkai_ like this get so close to a public area. I need to be more vigilant." She took out an _ofuda_ charm and placed it on the creature's body, which quickly disintegrated in a burst of blue flames.

"Thank you for rescuing us," Chachamaru said. Mana turned around and noticed the two for the first time.

"Chachamaru-san, are you... bleeding?" She asked, looking at her classmate's wound.

"It's a long story," she replied. Mana seemed to accept this without asking any more questions, and cocked her rifle again.

"You should get to a doctor, I'd help you but there might be more of those things." She quickly ran off.

By this time, Ryo had finally recovered. He had taken a slight bump on the head and had a few scratches on his arms and knees, but was otherwise okay.

"Chachamaru-san, what was that thing?" He asked, nervously looking around.

"I don't know, some kind of wild animal," she lied, not wanting to expose Ryo to the existence of things like _youkai_ and magic. "My friend Mana arrived and chased it off. She's very good with a gun so I don't think it will cause any more trouble." Chachamaru then collapsed to one knee, letting out a groan, as she was unable to suppress the pain from her wound any longer.

"It got you!" Ryo yelled in concern as he saw the blood dripping down her sleeve. "We've got to get you medical help right away!"

"The Mahora... biology lab, *ugh*, can help," She said, now sitting down on the ground and trying to apply pressure to the gashes.

"Biology lab? Isn't that halfway across campus? Why would you think of going there first?" Ryo asked, puzzled. "Kishida-sensei is a registered nurse and has a lot of supplies in the dorm, but that's still a bit of a walk from here. Come on, I have an idea."

Gently helping her up, Ryo let Chachamaru lean on him as he walked to a nearby store.

"Can we use your bathroom? It's an emergency," he asked the owner, who quickly obliged.

"I have some first aid training, but I haven't used it in a while, I just hope I remember how to do this right," Ryo said, as he tore off part of his pant leg to form a tourniquet and tied it around Chachamaru's arm. He then took some wet paper towels and wiped off a lot of the blood, then used several rolls of toilet paper to form a makeshift bandage.

"This should hold until we can get you to Kishida-sensei's office," he said, as they left the bathroom and headed for the dorm, making sure to keep a decent pace but not going too fast.

As they approached the front of the building, Noboru called to them from a distance.

"Walking together again? Are you two sure you're not dating?" He asked, in a teasing tone.

"Not now Noboru, she's hurt!" Ryo quickly rebuked him. As Noboru got closer and saw the blood seeping through the makeshift bandage, the smile immediately left his face, and all he could manage to get out was "Oh." As the two walked past him, he could be heard retching.

"He gets sick whenever he sees blood," Ryo explained.

They finally made it to Kishida-sensei's office. Ryo hadn't been kidding when he said she had a lot of supplies. There were syringes, bandages, microscopes, a scale, a device used to check blood pressure - basically everything you'd expect to see at a doctor's office. The room also smelled of rubbing alcohol and antiseptic.

"Oh my, what happened?" Kishida-sensei asked, concerned.

"She was attacked by some kind of wild dog or something," Ryo said. "I tried to stop the bleeding but it still looks pretty bad."

Taking off the paper bandage and examining the wound, the nurse cleaned it with a gauze pad and applied an antibiotic cream.

"I'm relieved," she said. "The wound looked pretty bad at first, but now that I can examine it closer, the cuts aren't too deep and you haven't lost much blood. As long as you keep a bandage on for a few days, you should be fine."

"Thank goodness," Ryo sighed in relief.

"You did a good job too, Ryo-san," Kishida-sensei added. "You could be a fine nurse one day."

"Well, maybe..." he said sheepishly. Chachamaru giggled a bit.

"Thank you for treating me, Kishida-sensei," she said.

"Oh, it's no problem at all, child!" The teacher replied as she applied the last bandage. "Now if you experience any symptoms, come see me immediately," she said.

"Yes ma'am," the green - haired girl replied, as she and Ryo left the office.

"Back then, when that dog or whatever it was attacked, it leapt straight at me," Ryo said. "You pushed me out of the way - risked yourself to save me, didn't you?" Chachamaru blushed. At the time, she hadn't thought about what she was doing, she just acted on instinct. Part of it was probably due to the fact that her subconscious hadn't fully adjusted to being human yet - on some level she still believed she had the powers and strength she used to have, thus making such a reckless action more justifiable. But Ryo was right - she had put herself at great risk to protect him. She attempted to deflect the question.

"Well, you would have done the same for me, right?"

Ryo seemed surprised at this, and looked down in thought for a few moments, but then looked back up and met Chachamaru's eyes, a resolute expression on his face. "Yes, I would have."

Chachamaru was surprised by this, she didn't expect him to answer with such conviction. She then smiled, and the two parted way to go to their separate dorm rooms.

Ryo was a little shocked by the previous conversation himself. He had definitely meant what he had said, but he was surprised he felt that way. Did the fact that they would do such a thing for each other mean they cared about each other on a level deeper than just friendship? He thought it over but he really didn't have an answer to that. In the end, he decided that the best thing to do was to just continue being friends and see how things went.


	7. Chapter 7

Evangeline McDowell sighed as she turned over in her bed. The past few days had been sheer torture for her. Having to fix her own food and tea and clean her own house? It was downright disgraceful. As a human, Chachamaru was a worthless servant. She had to find someone more competent. Eva turned over in bed as she pondered her options.

She could get Hakase to loan her another robot. She quickly dismissed this idea after thinking of it, though. While Hakase's other robots were intelligent and could think, they didn't have real personalities or emotions like Chachamaru - they weren't real people. And, as loathe as she was to admit it, Eva kept Chachamaru around for more than just manual labor.

Despite all the verbal abuse she heaped on the robot girl, Eva did consider Chachamaru to be her friend, and someone she could talk to when she was lonely. With her gone, the only other person around to talk to was Chachazero, and discussing the most efficient way to dismember someone got old after a while. Chachamaru had also served a role as Eva's conscience, often subtly nudging her in the right direction - something Chachazero would never be able to do.

It seemed the only solution was to find a new servant - she wouldn't even mind paying someone. She got out of bed and glanced at the clock on the wall - the school day was almost over. Eva had stayed home today as she often did. None of the teachers ever gave her any grief for playing hooky, at least if they knew what was good for them, and it's not like it actually impacted her education - she had completed the same courses over and over for 15 years, but due to Nagi's curse she could never actually graduate. The vampire went downstairs to get dressed and left her cottage.

She arrived at the girls' middle school just as the bell rang. Students poured out of the doors like a deluge, and she looked around for a promising candidate. She spied Chachamaru out of the corner of her eye, but ignored her. Finally, she settled on a short, purple - haired girl carrying a stack of books.

"Miyazaki," she said blunty, startling the girl so much that she almost dropped her books.

"E-Evangeline-san?" Nodoka asked nervously. Eva went directly to the point.

"How would you like to be my new personal assistant? It's not a difficult job, and I'll pay you 2000 yen an hour". Nodoka looked a bit confused for a moment, then replied:

"You need a new assistant? Does this have anything to do with what happened to Chachamaru-san?"

This took Eva by surprise. "How did you know about that?"

"Kazumi-san told-" Nodoka began.

"Ah, say no more," Eva cut her off. She should have guessed. "Chachamaru is having trouble adjusting to her new... situation, so, being the compassionate person I am, I let her take a break," the vampire lied. "If you're interested in the job, come visit my house, I'll show you around."

"Um, well... I'm not sure," Nodoka replied nervously. "I'll have to think about it."

An annoyed expression played across Evangeline's face for a fraction of a second, but then shifted to a smile.

"Okay, but if you change your mind, you know where to find me," she replied. Little did Nodoka suspect that Eva had used her powers to implant a subtle hypnotic suggestion in the girl's mind. She smirked deviously and walked away. By tomorrow she would doubtlessly have a new servant.

* * *

Chachamaru finished marking the answer to the last question on her homework assignment, and leaned back in her chair. It had been a few days already since the dangerous run-in with that _youkai_. Since Kazumi had spread the news of her becoming human to almost all of class 3A, a lot of them had been asking her questions. With the bandage she was wearing over her arm now, naturally that was questioned too. She had stuck to a cover story about tripping on her way to school - since the bandage covered the claw marks, no one had questioned this.

Speaking of her injury, it was almost healed, and Kishida-sensei had told her that it would only be a few more days until she could take the bandage off. The human body's ability to repair itself was pretty remarkable, she thought. Noboru had approached her yesterday in the hallway of the dorm and attempted to apologize for throwing up at the sight of her wound, but she replied that his hemophobia wasn't his fault. Unfortunately, he took this as a sign that he should start hitting on her again - she had curtly dismissed him and left.

This brought her thoughts to personal relationships. She recalled how Ryo had stated he would risk himself to protect her. She could tell he was absolutely sincere about that, and that had slightly shocked her. On the one hand, it was a good thing that he cared about her enough to be willing to do something like that. On the other hand, however, it was somewhat disconcerting. They had only known each other for a few days - what gave him the motivation to risk his life for her? It was kind of unsettling. Then again, she had done the same thing for him - but, as she had reflected on earlier, that was out of instinct. She had acted without thinking.

Chachamaru paused as a new thought occurred to her. If she had had time to think it over before acting, would she have done anything differently? She certainly would not have just stood there and done nothing while that creature tried to kill Ryo. She came to the inescapable conclusion that her actions wouldn't have been any different. Whether this just meant she and Ryo were caring people or if it signified something deeper, she didn't know. She yawned and realized she was getting tired, so she changed into her kitten pajamas and went to sleep.

* * *

Nodoka Miyazaki awoke from a deep sleep in her dorm room. She knew she had been having a dream, but for the life of her she couldn't recall what it was about. As she stood up, she remembered that today was the weekend - there was no school. She was planning to join the Library Exploration Club for an expedition into the depths of Library Island today, but instead she felt a strange compulsion to visit Evangeline-san and take up her job offer. She could certainly use the money to buy more books, after all.

After she had gotten ready, she set off for Eva's cottage. When she arrived, her immortal classmate was standing on the front steps, as if she was waiting for her.

"I knew you would come around, Miyazaki," she said. "Now come on inside and I'll show you the ropes." Nodoka followed her in.

As they walked into the living room, a teasing voice range out. "Well well well, look what the bat dragged in! Looks like master's found a tasty snack!" From a chair across the room, Chachazero cackled maniacally.

Nodoka panicked and tried to run, but Eva grabbed her by her shirt collar. "Just ignore her. If I wanted your blood, I wouldn't have to bring you here to get it."

Nodoka supposed that made sense, and calmed down a little. "Why do you always have to ruin my fun, master?" The sociopathic doll cried out in dismay. Evangeline ignored her as she brought Nodoka to the kitchen.

"You know how to prepare tea, right?" Eva inquired.

"Y-yes," Nodoka replied, still a little nervous.

"Good. I'll be upstairs. Make some and bring it to me."

"Yes, master" Nodoka said subserviently, not even noticing the words she had used as the hypnotic power wormed its way into her subconscious.

Eva smirked as she ascended the stairs to her room.


	8. Chapter 8

Negi Springfield opened the door to the Mahora Robotics Laboratory. "Hakase-san, you wanted to see me?" He asked.

The pigtailed girl immediately looked up from the computer console she was working on and went to greet her teacher. "Yes, Negi-sensei, I believe I've made a breakthrough on the path to changing Chachamaru back."

She walked over to a metal platform on the side of the room with a large sheet draped over it. "All my research and experiments with transmuting her body back directly have run into dead ends, so-" she lifted the sheet, revealing a very familiar - looking robot body.

"Chachamaru-san?" Negi asked, surprised.

"No, this is just an empty shell," Hakase replied, knocking her fist on the robot's forehead. "See? No one home. I figured if we can't change Chachamaru's body back directly, I could just build this new body, and then find a way to upload her consciousness into it."

"That's clever," Negi replied. "But what will happen to her human body?"

"Eva-san expressed an interest in devouring it," Hakase replied casually. Negi gasped as he heard this.

"Hakase-san, that's horrible!"

She rolled her eyes. "You have to look at this from a scientific perspective, sensei. Without a mind inhabiting it, her human body will be nothing more than a piece of meat. There's no harm in disposing of it."

Negi frowned, somehow not accepting this logic. Hakase sighed.

"If you really insist, I suppose I could preserve the body in cryostasis, although it would be a waste of power if you ask me."

Negi was adamant, however. "Well then that's what you'll have to do, Hakase-san, I won't allow you to just destroy Chachamaru's body."

"Okay, fine sensei, give me a break!" She replied. "Besides, I haven't actually worked out the process to transfer her mind to this body yet. I've come up with several algorithms that should theoretically work, but every simulation I run fails."

"If I had to guess," Negi said, "it would be because you are just trying to transfer the information stored in her brain, which won't work unless you can transplant her soul too."

"I suspected that might be the case." Hakase groaned in frustration. "Souls are such an unscientific concept! I just can't get a handle on stuff like this!"

"Well where science fails, it's time to try magic," Negi suggested. "In my old school I remember reading about a German alchemist who invented a technique for transferring souls between bodies."

"That was actually one of the first avenues I explored," Hakase responded. "However it seems he wrote most of his findings in a grimoire which has never been reproduced, and I couldn't find any information on its present location, or even if it still exists."

"Maybe you just didn't look hard enough," Negi replied, revealing a book he had been carrying. "Yue-san let me borrow her artifact, since I figured it would come in useful for a time just like this." Opening the magic tome, he searched its encyclopedic contents until he found what he was looking for.

"Aha! Here we go - On Translocating Essence, the grimoire containing the magical research of Jakob Bohme, written in the year AD 1604, was protected by a spell which prevented its contents from being copied. Its current location is believed to be" Negi smiled as he read the next words "Library Island, Mahora Academy."

"It was right under our noses the whole time!" Hakase exclaimed in happiness.

"Don't get too excited," Negi said, closing the book. "Library Island is a huge place, and dangerous too. Finding and retrieving this book probably won't be simple."

"Hmm, you're right," Hakase said, looking more downcast.

"Don't worry though," Negi said, trying to reassure her. "That's what the Library Exploration Club is for! I believe they're having a meeting later today, I'm sure I can get them to help."

"That would be wonderful," the young scientist replied, "but just to keep all of our options open, I'll keep working on an alternate solution." She went back to her work, waving goodbye to Negi.

* * *

The next morning, Negi had explained the situation to the Library Exploration Club, and they had gathered in the first floor of Library Island, along with Kaede, Ku Fei, Konoka, and Setsuna, who had overheard and decided to help.

"Where's Nodoka-san?" Negi asked, noticing the bookworm was conspicuously absent from the meeting.

"That's a good question," Yue replied. "I haven't seen her outside of class for a few days. Yesterday I asked her what was going on, but she just mumbled something I couldn't catch and left."

"She's been acting weird," Haruna Saotome added. "She hasn't talked to me at all and every day after school I've seen her run off in a completely different direction to where the dorm is."

Strange, Negi thought. He would have to investigate this later, but now his main priority was to help find that book.

"Do you all know our mission?" Yue asked the group authoritatively.

"Of course we know, you've only been drilling it into us all day, de-gozaru," Kaede replied. "Find the grimoire of Jakob Bohme. You even gave us these to help." She held up a sheet of paper containing a picture of the wanted book.

"Just making sure," Yue replied.

"Ojousama, are you sure it's a good idea to come along?" Setsuna asked Konoka. "The lower levels of the library are dangerous, full of traps and guardian creatures."

"I know, but what happened to Chachamaru-san is my fault, so I want to do everything I can to help," the headmaster's granddaughter replied. "If anyone gets hurt I can heal them too. Besides, I have you to protect me, Secchan." Setsuna blushed.

"Okay, if everybody is ready now, let's go," Yue said. The others nodded and began their descent into the mysterious underground library.

* * *

Chachamaru finished her shift at the sporting goods store she was now working at, and began walking home. It was late, and the sun was already setting in the sky. As she approached the dorm, she noticed Ryo, walking home from his job.

"Ryo-san? I thought your shift ended an hour ago."

"Boss made me stay late, had some extra work for me to do," he replied.

"Oh, I'm sorry," she said.

He laughed. "It's no problem. Besides, I like seeing the sunset."

They both looked at the beautiful red and orange rays of the sun filtering through the clouds behind the World Tree.

"Um, Chachamaru-san?" Ryo suddenly asked, his voice noticeably carrying a nervous tone, even though he tried to suppress it.

"Yes?" She replied.

"Um, there's no school tomorrow, so if you have the time, would you like to, um, take a walk with me? Maybe get something to eat?"

She was a bit surprised at this. "Ryo-san, are you asking me on a... date?"

He blushed bright red and became even more nervous. "What? No, well, I mean, um, if you want to think of it as a date, then I guess-" She smiled and answered.

"Sure, I'd love to."

"Really?" He asked, surprised himself.

"Yeah, I don't mind. When and where will we meet?"

"How about in front of the World Tree at noon?" Ryo replied, now speaking more confidently.

"Okay, I'll meet you there," Chachamaru replied, as they both retired to their dorm rooms.

* * *

Author's Note: Jakob Bohme was a real person, but the version in this story is completely fictionalized and should not be confused with the real one


	9. Chapter 9

The group had been walking for over an hour now, descending deeper and deeper into the labyrinth underneath Library Island. They had narrowly avoided several deadly traps - a particularly close call occurred when the door they entered locked behind them and a spiked ceiling descended to crush them, but Kaede saved them just in the nick of time with her artifact, allowing them to safely escape. As the team reached the end of the next corridor, they found themselves staring out from the side of a massive cylindrical room, at least 50 meters across and descending so far into darkness that they couldn't see the bottom. The walls of the room were covered with bookshelves, with slight gaps for a winding staircase.

"Wow," Konoka gasped in awe.

"No matter how many times I come down here, I'm always amazed at how huge this place is," added Haruna.

"Maybe we should just give up," Setsuna said despondently. "It would take 1000 years to search through all of the books in this place."

"We don't have to search everywhere," Yue responded. "I have an idea of where the book might be. In fact, I've been leading us in that direction the whole time."

This surprised the others.

"Well then why didn't you tell us earlier-aru?" Ku Fei asked. The others looked at her, agreeing that this was a good question.

"Um, I guess I just forgot..." Yue said, embarrassed.

"Well at least now we have a clear plan," Negi said. "Lead the way, Yue-san."

The short girl walked down the staircase, the others following after her.

"According to my research, Jakob Bohme was most widely known as an alchemist, and in fact his soul grafting technique is based on alchemical principles. I remember finding some books on alchemy in a previous expedition, they were in a room not far from here." Yue stated this confidently, not paying attention as she stepped on a stone panel that retracted, opening a gaping hole underneath her feet. She nearly fell into the abyss, but Kaede reached out and grabbed her.

"You need to be more careful, de-gozaru," the ninja admonished.

"Sorry, and thank you, Kaede-san", Yue replied. The rest of the group carefully avoided the hole as they continued on their way.

* * *

Evangeline A. K. McDowell slowly sipped her tea as she idly read a book. Nodoka was quite skilled at preparing tea, she reflected. The _Shinso _vampire was still rather annoyed after hearing that Negi had forbidden Hakase to let Eva have Chachamaru's human body. It's not like she would need it after her mind was transferred into her new robot body, and Eva hadn't had the pleasure of completely draining a human body of blood for years. She licked her lips just thinking about it. Putting down the book, Eva decided to check on her new servant's condition.

"Miyazaki, get up here!" She yelled abruptly. A few seconds later, Nodoka, wearing a black - and - white maid outfit, entered Eva's room.

"Is there something wrong, master?" She asked meekly. Eva frowned. The hypnosis she had placed over the girl required a delicate balance - too little and she would break free and escape, too much and she would become nothing more than a mindless slave, which was definitely not what the vampire wanted. She decided to test her.

"No, there's nothing wrong, I just want your opinion on something."

"What is it, master?"

"Hakase tells me that she is close to finding a way to restore Chachamaru." Eva started.

"That's good news," Nodoka smiled.

"Yeah, well, there's a complication. She's planning to transfer her mind into a new robot body, which will leave her human body an unused, empty shell. It would be a perfect meal for me, but Negi and Hakase don't want to let me have it."

Nodoka blinked a few times, seemingly struggling with some kind of internal conflict.

"Master should get what master wants, but-" she paused again, squinting and looking confused. Then she spoke in a more emotional tone. "I-I don't really think it would be nice to eat Chachamaru-san's body, even if she's not using it."

Eva smiled. Obviously she disagreed, but she was glad to see Nodoka still had some free will.

"That will be all, Miyazaki. Go dust my collection of magical artifacts," she said, dismissing the girl.

"Yes master," Nodoka complied and left.

* * *

Chachamaru walked down the street, looking at the gargantuan World Tree growing larger in her vision as she approached it. She bowed her head in thought. Was this really the right thing to be doing? She had never been on a date before, although she had fantasized about it. She always thought her first date would be with Negi-sensei, though. That wasn't to say that Ryo-san wasn't nice, and he did seem to care about her after all. She admitted that she liked him too. But he only knew her as a human being - was it okay to deceive him like this? After all, Hakase and the others were working on a way to change her back, and what would happen then?

She shook these thoughts off - she was overthinking things. It wasn't like this was anything serious - they were just taking a walk together. It wasn't even really a date, if they didn't want to consider it one. After all, Ryo and her were friends, and what was wrong with two friends spending time together?

As she approached the base of the World Tree, she spotted Ryo waiting for her. He waved and she quickly ran over to him. "Right on time," he said, smiling.

"So what now?" Chachamaru inquired.

"Come on, I want to show you something," Ryo answered, holding her hand. She blushed a little, but quickly suppressed it. He led her through a maze of back streets and alleyways, until they reached a back lot of and old, decrepit building.

"What is this place?" Chachamaru asked. "I've never been here before."

"Come on up and I'll show you," Ryo said, climbing a fire escape on the side of the building. Chachamaru followed, until they had reached the roof.

"I discovered this place last year when I got lost trying to find my new job," he said. He gestured towards the right, and she looked where he was pointing, gasping slightly at the sight that greeted her.

All of the Mahora campus was easily visible from this point, from the World Tree to Library Island. The sun filtered through the branches of the tree, producing an iridescent glow that bathed the buildings in brilliant gold. Looking around, Chachamaru could spot the girls' middle school, Eva's cottage, her new dorm, both her and Ryo's workplaces, and many other landmarks.

"It's beautiful," she said, awed.

"I know," Ryo replied. He had briefly considered saying something corny like "not as beautiful as you", but he was way too embarrassed. In fact, he was a bit embarrassed for even thinking of it. Instead, he just decided to explain more about his secret place. "If the sun is out, then for a few hours a day it produces this effect, I'm pretty sure you have to be looking at it at exactly the right angle, and this is the only place on campus where you can see it. I come here whenever I'm feeling stressed or if I just want to relax."

He paused. "You're the first other person I've shown this to."

She turned around, smiling, the light beams filtering through the World Tree's branches illuminating her with a glowing outline. "Thanks, Ryo-kun. I'm glad I got to see this."

He noticed the honorific she had used and blushed slightly. They both sat on the edge of the building, looking at the gorgeous scenery for a few minutes. Finally, Ryo broke the tension.

"Are you getting hungry? I haven't had anything to eat since breakfast."

"Come to think of it, I could use some of Satsuki-san's meat buns," Chachamaru replied. They climbed down the fire escape and made their way to Chao Bao Zi.

Ryo offered to pay for both of their meals, but Chachamaru insisted that she pay for her own, because she had a paying job now after all.

As they were finishing their food, the newly - human girl smiled. "Thanks for spending time with me today, Ryo-kun, I had a really great time."

"I enjoyed it too, Chachamaru-chan", he replied, deciding to use a more familiar honorific himself.

"Maybe we could do something like this again next week?"

Chachamaru hesitated upon hearing this. Next week? There was a good chance that Hakase would have found a way to turn her back by then. Still, she couldn't just refuse, that would be rude, and it's not like it was a sure thing that her transformation would be reverted by then.

"Sure, I'd love to," she said.

Ryo suddenly looked nervous, as he tried to ask a question, fumbling with the words. "So, does this mean we're - you know..."

"Dating?" She finished for him. He nodded, looking embarrassed.

"Maybe," Chachamaru said, winking, as she leaned over and kissed him lightly on the cheek. He immediately rubbed the spot with his hand, looking at her, slightly shocked, but happy.

"You know, I've never actually had a girlfriend before," he said, looking at her.

"Neither have I," she replied, but then immediately blushed, covering her mouth as she realized what she had just said.

"Um - uh, what I mean is that-"

Ryo laughed. "I know what you mean," he said. She joined him in laughter. After they were finished, they both headed for their dorm rooms.

"I guess I was wrong, this was a real date," Chachamaru thought to herself. "Still, that's not a bad thing." She smiled, laying down on her bed.


	10. Chapter 10

After braving many more traps and obstacles (including a pissed -off golem, a live griffin, a room that filled with knockout gas, and several magical barriers), the group finally found their target - an ornately decorated book on top of a pedestal in a small side room. Comparing it to the pictures they had, it was obviously the grimoire of Jakob Bohme.

Negi approached it first, reaching out to take the book, but he yelped in surprise as an invisible force repelled his hand. A strange, mist-like substance then filled the room, coalescing into a transparent, vaguely humanoid shape.

"Who desires the tome of Translocating Essence?" The being spoke in a loud, authoritative voice. Some of the group were naturally a bit spooked by this, but Negi was unfazed.

"Who are you?" He asked.

"I am a guardian spirit, assigned to protect the secrets of master Bohme from those who are unworthy of the knowledge. For what reason do you seek the power of Soul Grafting?"

"We just want to help our friend," Negi replied. "Please let us read the book."

The spirit wasn't convinced. "I cannot let the grimoire be used for evil purposes. Stand still, and allow me to scan your hearts."

The group looked at each other and conferred, quickly deciding to agree to this test. The spirit moved across the room, enveloping them all in a cloud of dense fog, to the point where they couldn't see their own hands in front of their faces. After a few minutes, the fog lifted, and the spirit had a very angry expression.

"Deceiver! There is a vile heart among you!" The spirit was clearly pointing at one person - Haruna Saotome.

"What? Me!" She asked incredulously, but the spirit was not finished yet.

"You aspire to enslave and rule over others! The sacred knowledge shall never be yours!"

Everyone looked at Haruna in confusion. She had a sheepish look on her face.

"Okay, I admit, I do have dreams of conquering the world sometimes, but that doesn't have anything to do with this! Now give me that book!"

She dived at the tome, but it flew up in the air before she could reach it, the spirit carrying it out and away into the underground maze of Library Island.

"Follow that book!" Yue yelled, as they all chased after it.

Using her body duplication and void instant movement skills, Kaede almost grabbed it several times, but each time the spirit was able to narrowly escape. Finally, they lost it as the book plunged into a deep abyss.

"I guess that's that then," said Setsuna dejectedly.

"Sorry guys," Haruna said apologetically.

"It's not your fault-aru," Ku Fei replied, trying to cheer her up. "That spirit was just a jerk."

"Still, we came so far, only to lose our lead like that," Negi said, sighing. Suddenly Konoka spoke up.

"Negi-sensei, look at this!"

They all turned around to see Konoka holding a book which had been knocked off a shelf during the frantic pursuit. The Title: "Reversing Complex Transmutation, Second Edition".

"Let me see that," Yue said, taking the book from Konoka. She summoned her own artifact and compared the contents of the books.

"It looks like this book has a lot of information that isn't available to me," she said. "I'm not an expert or anything, but this seems promising."

She handed the book over to Negi, who skimmed through a few pages. "This is interesting, there's stuff in here I've never heard of before," he mused.

"Well at least we didn't come out of this empty - handed," Yue said, cheering up. "Good job, Konoka-san".

* * *

As the group left Library Island, Negi took the book Konoka had discovered and brought it to the Mahora Robotics Laboratory.

"Oh, you found Bohme's grimoire?" Hakase asked expectantly.

"No," Negi responded, "but we did find something else that might be useful." He showed the book to his genius student.

"Hmm", she inspected the tome. "This does look interesting, but it deals with a lot of complex magic that I don't really understand. Evangeline-san or the headmaster would probably be better at figuring this out than I would." She closed the book and handed it back to her teacher. "Now if you'll excuse me sensei, I need to get back to work."

"Sure thing, Hakase-san," Negi said, taking the book and leaving. Her suggestion of bringing it to Konoemon for analysis was a good one (Eva not so much), but Negi had something more important to do first.

He took out a card from his pocket - the proof of Nodoka's pactio. Holding it to his forehead, he sent out a telepathic message.

"Nodoka-san? Where are you? Please answer me."

* * *

"Huh? Sensei?" Nodoka Miyazaki thought as she heard the voice in her head.

"Where are you, Nodoka-san?" Negi asked telepathically.

"I'm currently trimming some overgrown plants in master's front yard," she replied, going back to her task.

"Master?" Negi asked, confused.

"Yes, I work for Evangeline-san now," the girl replied.

"And she makes you call her master?" Negi asked.

Nodoka paused for a moment. She didn't recall Eva-san ever telling her to address her that way, she just sort of started doing so - it felt right somehow. But it was strange.

"Negi-sensei, what do you want?" She asked, changing the subject.

"I've just noticed that you've been kind of distant lately. You don't seem to pay much attention in class, and your friends have told me that you won't even speak to them anymore."

"Friends?" Nodoka replied. "Master is my only friend."

Negi had had his suspicions, but now he knew something was wrong.

"Where is your master now?" He asked, his tone becoming more serious.

"She is inside watching TV," Nodoka replied.

"Nodoka-san, please summon your artifact," Negi requested, formulating a plan.

"Why?" She replied bluntly.

"Just trust me," he said.

Nodoka decided to take his word for it. "Adeat," she uttered softly, so that Eva would not hear her. A book instantly materialized in her arms. Opening it to a random page, she saw the thoughts of the nearby vampire.

"Nodoka is such a wonderful servant, maybe even better than Chachamaru," the telepathic transmission read. "Hypnotizing her was one of the best decisions I've ever made. She hasn't even remembered that I was supposed to be paying her, the fool! When Chachamaru comes back I think I'll keep both of them!"

Nodoka gasped. With this revelation, the mental compulsion was undone, and she slammed the book shut, quickly unsummoning it. The truth about what she had been doing flowed into her mind like a deluge. Eva had been using her like a slave! A particularly unpleasant memory drifted to the surface. Moving her right hand to her neck, she felt two small, perfectly circular scabs. In a panic, she ran away from Eva's cottage, the vampire not noticing that yet another one of her servants had fled her.

* * *

As Chachamaru walked down the sidewalk, heading to her new dorm, she suddenly noticed Nodoka running across the road next to her, seemingly fleeing from something. She moved to intercept her classmate.

"Nodoka-san, what's wrong?" She asked, concerned.

Nodoka looked up at her, tears in her eyes. "Chachamaru-san, it was terrible!" She exclaimed, unexpectedly hugging the taller girl. Chachamaru returned the hug, sensing that Nodoka needed comfort.

"What happened, Nodoka-san?" She asked.

Nodoka told her how Eva had hypnotized her and forced her to serve her, isolating her from her friends and social life. Chachamaru then noticed the marks on Nodoka's neck.

"Nodoka-san, did she-"

"Yes, it was horrible!" The purple - haired girl replied, fresh tears covering her face as she recalled the sensation of the blood being drained from her body. "I didn't even remember it happened until just a while ago!" Nodoka looked around nervously.

"What if she comes after me, Chachamaru-san?"

"Don't worry, she probably won't," Chachamaru replied. "She didn't come after me when I ran away."

"Huh?" Nodoka asked, confused. Chachamaru explained the falling - out she and her former master had had, deciding to also explain her new living accommodations, but leaving out the part about her budding relationship with Ryo.

"Oh, I see. I should have guessed she was lying when she said she gave you a break out of compassion." Nodoka replied, starting to calm down.

"That does sound like the type of lie she would tell," Chachamaru said.

Just then, they were interrupted by a familiar voice.

"Hey Chachamaru-chan! Who's your friend? Wow, she's cute!"

Chachamaru turned her head to look at the interloper.

"Not now, Noboru-san, Nodoka-san has just been through a frightening experience."

"Aren't you going to at least introduce us?" The boy persisted.

"Fine," the green - haired girl relented. "Noboru, this is Miyazaki Nodoka-san. She is in the same class as me. Nodoka, this is Matsumoto Noboru-san. I met him a few weeks ago at my new dorm."

"Pleased to meet you, Nodoka-chan," Noboru said, extending his hand. Nodoka shook it timidly. He then noticed the bite marks on her neck.

"Wow, what happened there?" He asked. Before either of the girls could answer, he continued. "If I didn't know any better, I'd say you were bitten by a... a... vampire!" His expression had changed to one of nervousness, but he quickly started laughing, holding his right hand behind his head.

"Of course that's silly, we all know there are no such things as vampires!"

Chachamaru and Nodoka looked at each other furtively.

"Anyway, I've got to go. Look me up if you're interested in a date, Nodoka-chan!" He said flirtatiously as he left. Nodoka blushed in embarrassment.

"Just ignore him, he treats all the girls that way," Chachamaru said. Nodoka nodded, then looked around nervously.

"What should I do now, Chachamaru-san? If Evangeline-san finds out that I escaped her control, I'm afraid of what she might to do me."

"Despite what it may seem like, Eva-san is really not a bad person," Chachamaru replied reassuringly. "She wouldn't really hurt you. If you are still scared, I would recommend talking to Negi-sensei. You said he was the one who helped you snap out of her hypnosis, didn't you?"

"Yes, good idea," Nodoka said, smiling for the first time that day. "Thank you, Chachamaru-san, you're a really nice person." Chachamaru smiled.

"No problem, Nodoka-san."

The two then parted ways, Nodoka heading towards the girls' middle school and Chachamaru heading back to the dorm.


	11. Chapter 11

Chachamaru Karakuri slowly walked across the Mahora campus, looking at the sun hanging low in the sky. She had almost gotten used to not having an internal clock anymore, and was getting pretty good at guessing the time - it was about 5 PM. She reflected on the events of the last week. Negi-sensei and some of her classmates had explored the depths of Library Island to find a book of magic knowledge that could be used to restore her. They had not found the specific book they were looking for, but by chance stumbled upon another useful tome. Hakase had said she was getting very close to finding a solution, but Chachamaru didn't mind waiting a little longer. She had actually been enjoying being human, for the most part.

Her former master, however, had not been enjoying it. Chachamaru never realized just how much Eva had needed her, as not only a servant, but a friend. Hypnotizing Nodoka-san and drinking her blood were evil acts, but Chachamaru felt pity for Evangeline and somewhat understood why she had done it. Of course, this doesn't mean she supported it - on the contrary, she had done her best to help free Nodoka and console her. Afterwards, she and Negi-sensei had confronted Eva about it. The vampire was uncooperative, but they had eventually gotten her to agree to not try anything like that again, under the condition that Chachamaru would be turned back and become her servant again within a week.

That deal had been made 5 days ago. It was likely that Eva would soon try to rope another innocent person into being her slave. Still, that problem would have to be addressed when it came up. Right now Chachamaru concentrated on her current task - her first date with Ryo. Well, her first real date - their last outing had didn't really count, as neither of them had gone into it with any expectations of romance. Still, it had ended up that way, and now they were going to see each other again. Chachamaru paused, having another pang of doubt. Was this really okay? If she started dating Ryo, did that mean she had given up on Negi-sensei? She thought of her young teacher, his kind, smiling face looking up at her. He was definitely a great person, and he liked her, but did he like her _that way_? There were so many other girls competing for his attention - he had kissed over half of the class! Sure, it was mostly for the purpose of the _pactio_ ritual, but still. Nodoka had even confessed her love for him, but he was unable to make a commitment to her. Chachamaru supposed she couldn't really blame him - he was only 10 years old, after all. All of this romantic tension wasn't something a kid his age should be used to dealing with. She thought back to Ryo - he seemed to have eyes only for her, and while she didn't know him as well as she did Negi, she could tell he really did care about her. Besides, she had already agreed to the date, and was actually looking forward to it.

There was still one major problem, however - Ryo was clueless as to her true nature. When she changed back, how would she explain it to him? She supposed she could keep pretending to be human - just make up a lie about her ears, as the rest of the advanced body Hakase had given her was indistinguishable from that of a human girl. She would also have to make up excuses for why she wouldn't eat or drink around him... no. That wouldn't work. Not only was it not feasible, but it would be dishonest too. Chachamaru resolved that when she turned back, she would tell Ryo the truth, even if it ended their relationship.

* * *

By this point, she had arrived at their agreed - upon meeting place by the base of the World Tree. Ryo was waiting there for her, and she noticed he was wearing nicer clothes than usual.

"Chachamaru-chan!" He smiled, approaching her. "For a second there I was worried you wouldn't come."

"I wouldn't stand you up," she replied.

"O - of course not, I know that," he said apologetically. "So what do you want to do first?"

"I was thinking we could just take a walk," she answered.

"Sounds good to me," he said, and they headed off in the direction of the lake. After a few seconds, Ryo reached out to hold her hand. She accepted, and they continued like that for a few minutes in silence. Finally, Chachamaru spoke.

"Ryo-kun, can I ask you a strange question?"

"I guess," he said, a bit confused. She took a deep breath. If she didn't want Ryo to be freaked out by the truth, it was best to ease him into it.

"Do you believe in magic?"

"Magic?" He repeated. "What do you mean, magic?"

"You know, the supernatural. Spirits, witches, spells, demons..." she trailed off. The two had stopped walking by now, standing on the water's edge.

"Not really," Ryo answered, wondering where she was going with this. "I guess I've never really thought about it. Why do you ask?"

She continued the tactic she had begun earlier."You have to admit, there are some strange things about Mahora." She pointed at the World Tree behind them. "That tree has to be the tallest in the world, but it's not in any official record books. And do you remember that "Mages vs. Martians" battle last year?

"That was just a big publicity stunt, thought, wasn't it?" Ryo asked. To be honest, his memory of the event was kind of vague, he remembered a bunch of costumed people and special effects. He had participated in the mock battle, but partway thought he had been hit by something he couldn't see and blacked out, waking up 3 hours later after the whole thing was over. He had chalked it up to eating something funny earlier by accident, maybe combined with a prank by his classmates, but it was kind of suspicious now that he thought about it.

Chachamaru continued. "Some of the things that happened there couldn't really be explained by special effects."

"So what are you saying, it was real magic?" He replied.

"Well, it makes you wonder," she said. Ryo remembered the giant robots, hovering airships, and strange beams of energy flying through the sky.

"It was kind of mysterious," he said. "But real magic? Come on."

Chachamaru sighed. This was going to be more difficult than she had thought. Still, she decided to try again.

"Well, just, hypothetically - maybe I know something about the mysteries of Mahora."

Ryo laughed. "What, are you a witch or something?"

"No," she answered.

"Too bad, you'd look really cute in a pointed hat," he said, smiling. She blushed a little.

Ryo checked his watch. "I made dinner reservations for us tonight, Chachamaru-chan," he said. "Nicest restaurant in town - I saved up quite a bit of money. Shall we go eat?"

"Ryo-kun, you didn't have to do that!," she exclaimed, thinking that he was trying too hard to impress her.

"Sorry," he said sheepishly. She smiled, even though he went overboard sometimes this kind of thing was one of his more endearing qualities.

"Still, what's done is done, so we should probably go." She agreed.

* * *

When they arrived at the restaurant, a waiter showed them to their table. Chachamaru looked at the menu - it was filled with a bunch of exotic - sounding foreign dishes, many of which she had never heard of before. If she was only going to be human for a few more days, she thought, it would be good to make the most of it while it lasted. She ordered several things at random. Ryo stuck to more traditional Japanese dishes.

As they finished their meal and left the restaurant, Ryo suddenly gasped.

"I forgot!" He said. Digging around in his pockets, he pulled out a small box.

"Um," he said, blushing brightly, "I got you this."

She took the box from him and opened it. Inside was a pair of shining silver earrings, twisted into an ornate and intricate design.

"Oh, thank you," she said, taking the box. "But Ryo-san, my ears aren't pierced."

"I noticed that," he said. "They're clip-ons."

"I hope they didn't cost too much," she said, admiring the beautiful patterns of the jewelry.

"Nah, I got them at a bargain," he said. Suddenly looking embarrassed, he continued "Not that I would have not paid more for them, I mean, don't get the idea that I would only give you cheap presents-" She stopped him with a gesture and put a hand on his shoulder, laughing.

"Don't be so nervous, Ryo-kun! I know what you mean." They both smiled and laughed. Chachamaru closed the box and put it in her pocket.

The sun had gone down by now, and the streetlights were on. They both had school tomorrow morning, so they would have to wrap it up.

"Thanks for going out with me, Chachamaru-chan," Ryo started. "I had a great time."

"So did I," she said, smiling gently. She then frowned, thinking this might be the last chance she would have to spend time with Ryo before being changed back.

"Is something wrong?" He asked, looking closer at her downcast face. Suddenly, she turned her head up, looking directly into his eyes, and embraced him. As their faces drew closer, Chachamaru thought how she normally wouldn't have done this so soon, but she was too afraid of losing him after her transformation was undone.

Their lips met, as they held each other closely for what seemed like forever. Finally, they let go.

"That - that was..." Ryo stammered. Chachamaru looked upset, wondering if she had been too forward.

"Amazing," he finished. She looked up and smiled and they kissed again, for a shorter time this time. The two held hands as they walked back to the dorm, parting ways as they headed to their separate rooms.

Chachamaru was so happy she barely payed attention to where she was going, and almost bumped into her own door before opening it. As she began to prepare for bed, however, she was jolted out of this state of euphoria by a loud ring. Picking up her cell phone (one of the items Hakase had bought for her earlier), she took the call.

"Chachamaru, great news!" It was Hakase. "I've finally perfected the method to reverse Konoka's spell. Come to my lab tomorrow after school and this will all be over."


	12. Chapter 12

"Chachamaru-chan? Chachamaru-chan, are you alright?"

Chachamaru opened her eyes, a feeling of panic slowly subsiding as she realized she had broken into a cold sweat overnight. Looking up, she saw a large figure standing over her bed.

It was Kishida-sensei.

"Wh-what's going on?" She asked, still half asleep.

"I heard you screaming, so I came to check on you," the teacher replied, holding up her right hand which contained a room key. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, I - I'm fine," Chachamaru replied, finally collecting herself.

"You must have had a nightmare, you poor dear. Do you want to talk about it?"

"No, I don't really remember what it was about," she told the teacher, as she looked over at the alarm clock beside her bed. It hadn't gone off yet, but it was almost time. She reached over and turned it off.

"I'll be fine now. Thank you for your concern, sensei."

"Of course, dear. Don't be afraid to come to me if you need help with anything else," the stout teacher replied, as she left the room.

Chachamaru tried to remember the dream that had caused her so much distress, but she was drawing a blank. One thing was for sure, though: It must have been a result of the nervousness she was feeling about being turned back.

She got dressed and left for school, but she had a hard time concentratimg, constantly worrying about what Ryo would think when he found out the truth, or even whether she wanted to be reverted to her old self in the first place. After class ended, she considered simply not going to the lab, but she knew Hakase and Negi-sensei would find her eventually, and running away from her problems was never a good idea.

* * *

She took a deep breath as she opened the door to the Mahora Robotics Laboratory. In addition to Hakase, Eva, and Negi, she was surprised to see Konoka there as well. The headmaster's granddaughter smiled and greeted her. Chachamaru noticed a robot body resembling herself laying on a metal table.

"Hakase-san, are you going to transfer my mind into that body?" She asked.

"That was the original plan, but unfortunately without Jakob Bohme's grimoire I've had to give up on that. Pretty disappointing, I built this body for nothing!" The young scientist frowned, but quickly smiled again as she continued. "However, I have found a way to reverse the original spell Konoka cast on you. The solution is quite simple, I'm disappointed in myself for not thinking of it earlier. You see, Konoka was the one who cast the spell, so Konoka is the only one who can reverse it."

"I've been practicing," Konoka added. "I can do the spell and the counterspell easily now."

"Well if you're ready Chachamaru, let's get down to business," Hakase said. "Sit down here and-"

"Hakase-san, wait." Chachamaru interrupted.

"Huh? What's the problem?" The pigtailed girl asked.

"I-" she whispered, "Do we really have to do this? Could I remain human, even for a little while longer?"

Evangeline, however, overheard, and would have none of it.

"Absolutely not! You will undergo this process and you will return to being my servant. That was the deal we agreed upon." Chachamaru cringed as the vampire stared at her malevolently. While Negi tried to calm Eva down, Chachamaru asked Hakase if they could talk privately.

"Fine, but make it quick," Eva said impatiently. The two girls retired to a side room.

* * *

"I know you like being human, but there are many advantages to being a robot," Hakase tried to persuade her. "You won't get sick or grow old, if you're hurt you can be repaired - I could even make you capable of tasting food, although it would take some work..." Chachamaru sighed. Hakase didn't get it, obviously. How could she? She didn't know the situation. Reluctantly, she decided to explain everything to her, about Ryo and the events of the past few weeks. After she was done, Hakase just stared at her with a blank expression on her face. Chachamaru grew nervous until Hakase put on a bright, beaming smile and hugged her.

"My little girl is growing up!" She said tearfully.

"H-Hakase-san, please stop, you're embarrassing me!" Chachamaru said, as she gently pushed her "mother" away.

"Sorry," the scientist said, wiping tears from her eyes. "But I'm very happy for you."

"But when he finds out I'm not really human-"

"You're human where it matters," Hakase said. "If this Ryo Tezuka can't see that, then he never deserved you in the first place."

These words provided some reassurance, so the two reentered the main room.

"I'm ready." Chachamaru announced.

"It's about time," Eva said, annoyed.

Chachamaru sat down and then laid back on a specially - prepared chair.

"Just relax, Chachamaru-san," Konoka said, drawing her practice wand. "This won't hurt - I don't think..."

She pointed the wand at Chachamaru's reclining body and shouted "Muto Tergum Vita!"

There was a bright flash of light, and after it dissipated, Chachamaru felt strange, but familiar. She know knew exactly what time it was, as well as the external temperature, barometric pressure, local magnetic flux, and various other measurements. She could switch to infrared vision and see the body heat being emitted by those standing around her. She no longer felt any breath in her lungs - indeed, she no longer had any lungs. Moving her hands up to the sides of her head, she felt the tall, metallic robot ears she was used to. "I think it worked," she said, as she slowly stood up.

"Quick, what's the square root of 17,692?" Hakase asked.

"It's an irrational number, but the first digits are 133.0112777," Chachamaru replied instantly.

"Good job," Hakase smiled. "I'm going to have to keep you here for a bit longer in order to run a few diagnostics and make sure everything is in order, but it looks like you're back to normal."

"Thank you, Hakase-san, Konoka-san" Chachamaru said, turning to the two girls as she addressed them.

"I'll give you some time to get your affairs in order, but first thing tomorrow morning you report directly to my house," Eva said sternly.

Chachamaru sighed. "Yes, master." With that, Negi, Eva, and Konoka left.

* * *

After Hakase had confirmed that Chachamaru was in perfect working order, the robot girl left for her dorm room. She needed to gather her belongings and inform Kishida-sensei that she was moving out.

Upon arriving, she spotted Ryo in front of the building. She tried to shy away from him, but he noticed her and called her over. She reluctantly approached him.

Ryo looked at her strangely.

"Chachamaru-chan, what are those things on your ears?"

She blushed self-consciously.

"Um, Ryo-kun, I-" She swallowed (or at least imitated the motion of swallowing), and confronted him with renewed courage. "These... are my ears, Ryo. My real ears. I'm not a human being. I'm a gynoid - a robot designed in the form of a human female."

"What?" He said, confused. "Is this some kind of a joke? Because I don't get it."

"It's no joke, Ryo, it's true," she said. "I can prove it - look." She took her left hand and and detached it, revealing flashing lights and glowing circuits and wires underneath.

Ryo gasped, but was still unconvinced. "That - that's gotta be like a prop or something, like in Hollywood," he said, although he was still clearly shocked. Chachamaru reattached her hand and shook her head.

"No, Ryo-kun, I'm sorry, but it's true. Maybe this will convince you." She took a few steps back from him and several panels on her legs and back slid open, revealing jets that she used to hover a few feet in the air, then landed.

"Wow... no way..." Ryo said, his mouth open in awe.

"I'm sorry for deceiving you," she said, looking downwards.

"But - but wait, I saw you bleed! When that wild dog attacked us you were injured. I helped dress your wound myself! Then Kishida-sensei examined you... how can you not be human?"

Chachamaru sighed, realizing this next part would be even more unbelievable, but she tried anyway. "I actually was human then, as I had been for the entire time I knew you up until now. Remember what I was telling you about magic? It's all real. That creature that attacked us wasn't a wild dog, it was a _youkai_. A magic accident turned me human, and I was only able to be changed back today."

Ryo stood there in shock for what seemed like an eternity, taking this all in. Finally he spoke "That's... pretty unbelievable, but I guess I can believe it... wow. I think I need to lay down."

He began to collapse, but Chachamaru quickly ran over and caught him before he fell.

"I'm sorry, Ryo-kun, I know this must be hard for you," she said, as she helped him back to his feet. "But, I was really hoping, that, well - can we still... be together?" She looked at him with the most innocent and sincere face you could ever see.

"I-" He began, not sure how to reply. "I - I'm sorry, this is just too weird!" With that, he ran off in confusion.

Tears flooded from Chachamaru's eyes as she collapsed on the ground crying.


	13. Chapter 13

Chachamaru eventually picked herself up, wiping off her tears, as she noticed that several people around her were giving her strange looks. She proceeded to the dorm building and up into her room. As she packed her belongings, she thought to herself.

"Maybe it just wasn't meant to be for us. I can sort of understand how he must feel, I would probably be pretty freaked out if I were put in the same situation. At least it was nice while it lasted." She recalled her memories of Ryo, from first meeting him as she fled from Eva to the end of their last date and their kiss. A few more tears fell from her eyes. Speaking of Eva, she would have to be returning to her side now, and she was not exactly looking forward to that.

She finished packing her bags. Most of the stuff in them wouldn't be necessary anymore, but she decided to keep it for sentimental value. Also, she did quite like some of the new clothes Hakase had bought her, and would probably still wear them. Chachamaru took out a piece of paper and a pen and left a note for Kishida-sensei explaining that she had found a new place to live closer to her school. She didn't want to confront the kind teacher in person due to the inevitable question about her ears.

She took her bags and left the dorm. After making sure she was out of view of anyone, she activated her jets and flew to Evangeline's cottage.

* * *

Alighting on the vampire's front lawn, she didn't even have time to reach the door before Eva opened it herself.

"Well it's about time," the _shinso_ said, impatiently. "What is all that crap?"

"Just various belongings I've accumulated," the robot girl replied, taking the bags inside.

"Well unpack it all, and when you're done you can dust my room," Eva said, handing Chachamaru a feather duster, which she had to carry in her mouth due to having her hands full.

"Well master hasn't changed," she thought as she walked upstairs.

After her servant was out of sight, Eva smiled to herself. It wasn't a sinister or devious smile, as was par for the course for her, but a genuinely happy smile. She would never let the robot know, but she had missed her. She walked over to a couch and sat down, opening a book. However, she had only read a few pages when she was interrupted by the doorbell.

Confused as to who would be visiting her at this time of day, the vampire put down her book and walked to the front door. Standing on her porch was a spiky-haired boy wearing casual clothes who seemed to be around the same age as most of her classmates.

"Can I help you?" She said coldly, as she opened the door.

The boy looked down at her in confusion.

"Um, little girl, are your parents here?" He asked.

Obviously Eva didn't take kindly to this, but she managed to control herself.

"Who are you and what do you want?" She asked, more harshly than before.

"Um, well, I'm looking for a friend of mine. Her name is Chachamaru Karakuri. I asked around and I was told she might be here."

This took Eva by surprise. Chachamaru had never told her about making any new friends, and a boy at that...

"Yes, she's here, but she's busy helping me," Eva said.

"Oh, is she babysitting you?" He asked obliviously.

The vampire winced in annoyance. If she hadn't made it a point of honor not to kill children...

"Listen punk," she said, pointing her finger at him menacingly. "You're starting to piss me off. I'm going to give you one chance to leave here immediately, or you don't want to know what I'll do to you."

The boy was taken aback. "A kid your age shouldn't talk like that! Do your parents know you use those kinds of words?"

Eva growled. "All right, asshole, you asked for it!"

Before she could carry through on her threat, however, she was tackled to the ground from behind.

"Master, no! Please don't hurt Ryo-kun, he doesn't know what he's talking about!"

Eva pulled herself up and threw Chachamaru off of her.

"Master?" She heard Ryo mumble in confusion. She ignored him.

Chachamaru had actually assaulted her to protect this boy? What could have made her do that? She decided to stay her hand and observe (discreetly, of course). She walked back inside her house, but kept listening.

* * *

Chachamaru explained Eva's nature and their relationship to Ryo.

"You're lucky I overheard you two talking," she said. "You could have been in serious trouble."

"Wow, I guess," he said. "It seems like this magic and paranormal stuff is everywhere. I've got to watch my step."

Chachamaru changed the subject. "Ryo-kun, you came looking for me?"

He blushed a little. "Yes, I wanted to apologize. I shouldn't have run away from you like that." He cast his gaze downwards.

"It's okay, Ryo-kun, it's not your fault," she reassured him. "Having such shocking revelations all told to you at once like that would have been overwhelming for almost anyone."

"Yes, well..." he began. "That's not the only reason I came here. I've been doing a lot of thinking. Even if you're no longer a human being, you're still the same person, right? All of the time we spent together, all of the things you said, all of the times you cried, laughed, were scared, or happy - that's all still you, right?"

Chachamaru smiled. "Yes. My body may have changed, but my feelings haven't."

"Then really, what's the difference?" Ryo asked. "Whether you're flesh and blood or... circuits and wires, you're still..." He blushed intensely and paused for a bit before the next line. "The girl I fell in love with. That is, if you still want me."

Chachamaru smiled and immediately embraced him, as their lips met in a passionate kiss.

"How's that for an answer?" She said, after they finished.

"It felt the same as the last time," Ryo reflected.

"My body is very human-like," Chachamaru said. Ryo was about to say something in response, when they both noticed the front door of the cottage was open, and Eva was standing there watching them.

"Master!" Chachamaru gasped, jumping back a bit. "How long have you been-"

"The whole time," she answered nonchalantly. "I should have suspected something like this."

"Master, please don't-"

"Stop you from seeing him?" She completed the sentence for her servant. "Don't worry about that. I don't care. Do what you want." With that, the vampire closed the door and returned to her room.

"She doesn't seem to be as scary as you said she is," Ryo said after a few seconds.

"Believe me, she is" the gynoid replied. "Although that was uncharacteristically nice of her..."

"So what now?" Ryo asked.

"Well I think it's about time I fully introduce you to my world. Can you meet me at the base of the World Tree tomorrow after school?"

"I'd love to, Chachamaru-chan," he replied, smiling.


	14. Chapter 14

Ryo Tezuka slowly walked down the streets of the busy Mahora campus, heading towards the enormous World Tree. He had convinced his boss to give him a day off from work today, so he could meet Chachamaru after school.

He still found it hard to believe that magic and all of these supernatural forces really existed, and found himself a bit apprehensive about what she might show him. She said she wanted to "introduce him to her world" - what could that mean? He had already met a _youkai_ and a vampire (neither of which were particularly pleasant). What else might there be? Ghosts? Dragons? Zombies? He shivered involuntarily at that last thought and hoped there were no zombies. He was just as afraid of them as his friend Noboru was of vampires. He reminded himself to never introduce Noboru to Evangeline-san.

He tried to banish the negative thoughts from his mind. Chachamaru wouldn't put him in any danger, and anyway he would gladly face a thousand zombies for her sake. He shifted his thoughts to her. The fact that she was a robot still kind of weirded him out, but like he had said before, there was really no difference between her and a human girl other than the physical. And even in that department, her ears were the only thing that gave her away as not being human. He remembered what she had said - "my body is very human-like". He briefly wondered if that applied to all of the parts of her body, but quickly banished the perverted thought from his mind in shame. Instead, he thought how it was strange for robots and magic to coexist like this, but he supposed she would explain it to him.

* * *

He noticed he had arrived at the designated meeting place, and, just as promised, he saw Chachamaru standing there waving to him.

They greeted each other, and she led him to the Mahora Robotics Lab. Ryo had never been to the place before, and didn't really know anything about it. He was aware it existed, but that's all. So it came as no surprise that he was amazed by the advanced technology on display, such as the life - size robotic T. Rex.

"This place is incredible," he said, as he peered at the various devices on display.

"I guess," Chachamaru replied. "I never really thought about it much, since it's so familiar to me. It is where I was born, after all."

"Are there other robots like you?" Ryo asked

"Well I have a number of sisters," she replied, "but I am unique in that-"

A voice finished for her. "She was the only one to independently develop emotions, and even has a human soul. I wish I could take all the credit, but that's not something that can be programmed."

Ryo and Chachamaru turned to look at the newcomer, a pigtailed girl in a lab coat who had just entered the room.

"Well, aren't you going to introduce us?" She asked Chachamaru.

"Oh, of course," the gynoid said. "Hakase - san, this is Ryo Tezuka. He is - well, my boyfriend, I guess." She blushed a little while saying this, since although she accepted it to be true, it was the first time she had announced it so formally. She turned to Ryo. "Ryo-kun, this is Satomi Hakase, she is the one primarily responsible for creating me. I suppose you could say that she is my mother."

"Which means that when you two get married, I'll be your mother-in-law," Hakase smirked.

"Wh-what!" Ryo gasped in shock. Hakase laughed.

"I'm just kidding around, of course! You never told me he was so gullible, Chachamaru!"

Chachamaru put a hand to her face in embarrassment.

"Hakase-san, Ryo-kun is probably interested in knowing about the fusion of magic and technology used in my construction," she said, attempting to deflect the topic.

Hakase's eyes lit up upon hearing this - she could never turn down a chance to talk about her designs.

"Yes, well, you see, Ryo-san, Chachamaru uses a unique type of power source that runs on magic. I developed it with assistance from many of the resident mages at Mahora, as well as some help from my friend Chao Lingshen." She took out a piece of paper, upon which was a complicated diagram with many labels Ryo couldn't make heads or tails of. "You see, via the use of precisely ion-polarized crystals, magic energy can be accumulated through a charged conduit and stored, then converted to electricity through a simple magnetic flux resonator. Of course you're probably wondering how it can power a system without a direct input of mechanical kinetic or potential energy, but that problem is solved elegantly by..."

Noting that Ryo's eyes were starting to glaze over, Chachamaru interrupted her mother.

"I'm sure he's fascinated, but we really have to be going now."

"But I haven't even gotten to the most interesting part yet!" Hakase complained. Still, Chachamaru insisted.

"Well, it was... interesting. Nice to meet you, Hakase-san," Ryo said, as the two left.

* * *

"I'm sorry, she tends to get overly excited sometimes," Chachamaru said, as they walked to their next destination.

"She seems kind of like a mad scientist," Ryo mused, "but I can tell she really cares about you." Chachamaru smiled at this.

"So where are we going next?" He asked.

"I want to introduce you to one of my best friends," Chachamaru said. She had actually been a little mischievous here, as she had invited her friend to meet her at a specified time and place without telling her why, just to see how she would react.

When they arrived, Ryo saw a glasses-wearing girl sitting on a bench in the shadow of a tree near a small river. The girl was holding a laptop and typing something, not seeming to notice the two.

"Chisame-san, we're here!" Chachamaru announced. Chisame looked up, surprised to see what she considered to be a rather attractive - looking guy with Chachamaru.

"Who's he?" She said, closing her laptop and putting in her bag.

"He's the one I wanted you to meet, Chisame-san. He's my boyfriend."

"Hello, my name is Ryo Tezuka," he said, extending his hand. "Pleased to meet y- um... is there something wrong?"

Chisame's mouth was hanging open in shock. "Excuse me, your- what?"

"Um, it's true, we-" Ryo began, but Chisame got up and pushed past him, confronting Chachamaru.

"Does he know that you're-"

"Yes, he knows," Chachamaru said, secretly enjoying Chisame's reaction. Perhaps it could be considered payback for all of the times the cynical girl had called her abnormal or a freak, although she knew she didn't really mean it.

"Then, you two are really-" She looked from one of them to the other, and eventually sighed and smiled.

"Huh, well I guess it's not so weird. I'm getting used to this kind of stuff by now..."

Chachamaru laughed a bit. "Ryo-kun, this is Chisame Hasegawa. She may seem kind of rude sometimes, but once you get to know her, she's really nice."

"Hey, who are you calling rude?" She yelled, but stopped once she realized she was only proving the robot girl's point. Ryo laughed. "Nice to meet you, Chisame-san."

"Likewise," Chisame said, as they finally shook hands.

As they left, Chachamaru thought about how there was still one more person she wanted to introduce Ryo to, but she was a bit nervous about how he and her former crush would get along. Still, she knew Negi-sensei would almost be done grading papers by now, so she led Ryo to his classroom.


	15. Chapter 15

"Are you sure it's okay for me to enter a girls' school?" Ryo asked, as Chachamaru led him through the front doors.

"You're just visiting, and classes are over for today anyway," she responded. He followed her down a few corridors until they stopped at a door reading "Classroom 3-A".

Chachamaru knocked on the door a few times, until Negi opened it.

"Chachamaru-san, is this the guy you said you were going to introduce me to?" He asked. Ryo looked down at him in confusion.

"I thought you said you were taking me to meet your teacher. Who's the kid?"

Chachamaru smiled in amusement. "Ryo-kun, meet Negi Springfield, Mahora Girls' Middle School Class 3-A English teacher."

"Pleased to meet you, Ryo-san," Negi said, extending his hand.

"Uh, hi," Ryo said, shaking his hand while looking very surprised.

"Come to think of it, I did hear a rumor a while back about a kid teacher... it's probably the least unusual thing I've seen today, actually," he laughed.

"Negi-sensei is probably also the best person to talk to around here if you want to know about magic, seeing as he is a very accomplished mage himself," Chachamaru added. She had told Negi earlier that Ryo knew about magic so he didn't panic upon hearing this.

"Really?" Ryo said, looking at the young boy skeptically. "Show me some magic, then."

"Um, well," Negi replied uncomfortably, "it's not exactly something that should be used frivolously."

"Oh, come on!" The older boy insisted. "I came all the way here, at least show me something!"

"Well... we have to make sure no one else sees anything," Negi said, looking around furtively.

"My sensors confirm no other observers within 30 meters," Chachamaru said.

"Okay, fine," Negi said reluctantly. "Let's see, what can I do here that won't attract too much attention... oh, I know! Ryo-san, think of a number, a country and an animal."

"Huh?" Ryo said.

"He is probably going to try to read your mind," Chachamaru clarified.

"Read my mind?" The thought made Ryo kind of nervous.

"Don't worry, Ryo-san, I'll only look at your surface thoughts, nothing private," Negi reassured him.

"Okay, I guess," Ryo replied. "Go ahead."

Negi closed his eyes in concentration and touched the palm of his hand to Ryo's forehead.

"17, Italy, and a marmoset," the young mage said with confidence.

"Wow, that's pretty amazing," Ryo replied as Negi stepped back.

"Thank you," Negi replied politely. "Do you have any other questions?"

"Yeah, um, do zombies exist?" Ryo asked nervously.

Negi scratched his chin. "Not that I know of."

Ryo sighed in relief.

"Don't worry, Ryo-kun, if they exist, I'll protect you from them," Chachamaru said. He smiled and gave her a quick hug.

"Thanks, Chachamaru-chan."

Negi was a bit taken aback by this, as Chachamaru had only told him that she would be introducing him to someone without saying any more.

"Chachamaru-san, what exactly is your relationship with Ryo-san?" Negi asked.

"She's my girlfriend," this time Ryo answered, confidently and proudly.

"R-really?" Negi asked, having suspected but still somewhat shocked to hear confirmation.

"Is there something wrong with that, sensei?" The robot girl asked. The shocked reaction from Chisame was expected and amusing, but it was kind of unsettling to hear it from Negi-sensei, even if his version was much more subdued.

"What? No, of course not, Chachamaru-san, I'm just a bit surprised is all. I hope you two are happy together."

Chachamaru blushed slightly and looked away, remembering some of the lingering feelings she had for her teacher.

"Well, it was nice to meet you, Negi-san," Ryo said, as the two left the classroom.

* * *

By now it was getting dark outside. Chachamaru offered to walk Ryo back to his dorm, an offer he accepted.

"Do you want to do something tomorrow?" He asked her as they walked over a bridge, the river gleaming beautifully in the light of the setting sun.

"I'm sorry, Ryo-kun," she said, lowering her head sadly, "but Master needs me for the rest of the day after school tomorrow."

"Oh," he said, disappointed. However, this also brought to mind something he had been wondering about earlier. "Come to think of it, does she even pay you?" He asked.

"No" the gynoid responded, hoping to drop the subject.

"So then why do you work for her?" Ryo continued to press.

"Well at first it was because I was programmed to," she said. "But even after I developed free will there are still many reasons. Foremost among them is that Master is not someone who takes kindly to being disobeyed. When I became human she rejected my service because I was unable to perform many of my usual tasks as effectively, but she would never let me stop now. Even if I somehow managed to quit, she would likely hypnotize an innocent person to become her new servant, as she did to my classmate Nodoka Miyazaki-san during the time I was staying in your dorm."

Ryo gasped upon hearing this.

"It's okay, Nodoka-san is safe now," Chachamaru said, seeing his distress.

"I see your point, but it's still not right," Ryo said.

"I really don't mind," Chachamaru tried to reassure him. "Master is not a truly evil person, and although she would never admit it, she does actually enjoy my company."

"Hmm... still though-"

"Don't worry about it, Ryo-kun, I'm fine, really," she said. By this time they had reached the front lot of the boys' dorm.

"Goodnight, Ryo-kun."

"Goodnight, Chachamaru-san."

The two shared a brief kiss before parting. However, unknown to either of them, Noboru had been watching them from his dorm room window.

* * *

Author's Note: I'm kind of running out of ideas here. I actually intended to end the story 2 chapters earlier, but I thought there was more that could be done with it. I'm trying to think of a good way to end it now (although if there is enough popular demand I'll probably write a sequel sometime later).


	16. Chapter 16

Ryo Tezuka walked through the front doors of the dorm as the sun set behind him. It had certainly been an interesting day, he reflected. As he climbed the stairs to the second floor, he was intercepted by Noboru, a fiendish smirk on his face.

"Just friends, huh?" Ryo's classmate asked, gently elbowing him in the ribs. "I didn't know you had it in you to lie to me like that!"

"What are you talking about?" The tired Ryo asked.

"Don't play dumb with me!" Noboru replied, seeming a little indignant. "I saw you kissing Chachamaru from the window! I knew something was suspicious when you first invited her to live here, in fact she probably moved out just to stop the suspicion, but you've been putting the moves on her the whole time!"

"What - no, Noboru-san, you've got it all wrong!" Ryo tried to defend himself.

"Are you trying to tell me I didn't see what I just saw?" Noboru asked teasingly.

"No, we, well we are... involved, but we were just friends when you met her - this is recent."

"Sure it is," Noboru said sarcastically. "I bet you visited her room every night when she used to live here."

"What! Of course not!" Ryo shouted, appalled at this scandalous accusation.

"Relax, I'm just kidding!" Noboru laughed. "But seriously, you should have told me about this."

"I guess," Ryo replied. After being introduced to all of the strange secrets of Mahora he had been too distracted to think of discussing things with Noboru.

"By the way, what were those weird things she was wearing over her ears?" Noboru asked, suddenly changing the subject.

Oh boy, Ryo thought as he gulped imperceptibly. He tried to fabricate an explanation.

"It's, um, some new kind of fashion. I hear it's really popular in, uh - Korea, yeah, Korea!"

"Huh. Interesting - I'm going to have to look that up..."

"No!"

Noboru looked at Ryo in confusion.

"Um, what I mean is... you don't want to waste your time looking up fashion for girls, do you? That would be embarrassing."

Noboru chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you're right."

Ryo sighed in relief. That was a close one. The two parted ways as they went back to their dorm rooms.

* * *

The next day, as Chachamaru prepared her master's tea, she thought about what Ryo had said to her yesterday. Delivering the tea to the small vampire, she mustered up the courage to voice her concerns.

"Master, may I speak to you about something?"

"Whatever," Evangeline responded, uninterested.

"Well, as you may know, during the time when I was human, I temporarily worked at a paying job."

"And...?" Eva asked, seeming to grow slightly more irate in anticipation of where this might be leading.

"I was just wondering - I work very hard for you, and it would be appreciated if you could, well - compensate me somehow?"

"You want to be paid, is what you're saying." Eva stated matter - of - factly.

"Yes master," the robot girl replied.

"No." the vampire replied concisely.

Chachamaru looked upset and prepared to speak again, but Eva cut her off.

"You're a robot, you don't need money. You're not my employee either, you're my servant - learn the difference. Who put this ridiculous idea into that computerized head of yours in the first place?"

"Even though I am no longer human, there are still several things that I can use money for-"

Eva ignored her, continuing her line of thought. "It was that boy, wasn't it? Ryo something - or - other." She looked at her green - haired servant, who was now showing visible signs of nervousness.

"I can tell I'm right by the look on your face. He needs to learn that you are foremost my property, and he can't interfere with that."

Feeling bravely but foolishly emboldened, Chachamaru looked her master directly in the eyes.

"I am not anyone's property." She said. "I am an individual with my own will. I have the right to do what I want with my life. You're lucky that I've chosen to work for you, but I would appreciate some recognition for my work."

Eva glared at the impetuous robot, looking for a moment like she was going to rend her limb from limb. Instead, she just spoke, in a cold, hostile voice.

"Did Ryo tell you that, too?"

"No, I-" Chachamaru began, but Eva stood up and pushed her to the side.

"I couldn't tolerate that brat at all when I first met him. I realize now I've been far too merciful. Today he is going to pay." The vampire slowly and deliberately walked out the front door of her cottage, leaving Chachamaru behind, horrified at the consequences of the terrible mistake she had just made.

TO BE CONTINUED

* * *

Author's Note: Figured I would end the story on a cliffhanger to remind myself to come back and write a sequel some day. I'm kind of out of ideas for now, so I need more time to consolidate my thoughts and creativity. Please don't bother me with constant requests for a continuation, I will write it, but give me a good amount of time, please.


End file.
